Howling Sycamore

Howling Sycamore

Seven Pathways to Annihilation

Prosthetic Records

21 June 2019

As long as anyone can remember, Davide Tiso (originally from Italy; resides in the U.S.) just cannot help himself to making music that ends up being out there in left field, avant-garde or experimental or a bit weird. Howling Sycamore, in some ways still is breaking rules, in a different way than expected. If you say “extreme metal that is progressive,” it usually means some form of death met-al/deathcore/mathmetal/core/jazzmetal/whatever with growled/screamed vocals. HS is “extreme metal that is progressive,” but the vocals are actual singing.

This project’s second album features Hannes Grossman (Germany) whose name is associated with lots of beloved albums/bands like Necrophagist, Obscura, amongst a bunch of other names and Metal Archives says he is also drumming for the death metal factory Hate Eternal and the post Celtic Frost band Triptykon. The singer is Jason McMaster who sang on the technical godfathers Watchtower debut album way back in 1985, and a bunch of their demos (he was in the band from 1982 to 1988), and currently sings for Ignitor, amongst others, and has done vocals for tribute bands to Metallica, Judas Priest, AC/DC, Motörhead, Rush, Kiss, and who knows what else, in addition to longtime Texas rockers Dangerous Toys. Lastly, there is Davide Tiso from Karyn Krisis’ Gospel of the Witches and from the now defunct experimental band Ephel Duath, among other projects. Tiso apparently plays guitar, bass, piano and baritone ukulele on the album.

The vocals are high, the drumming is wandering/progressive with some speed moments, and the guitars do not have linear structures. It is not crazy, all-over-the-place musicianship, but the bottom line is that the album requires your full attention, and given the credentials and credibility of the musicians involved, you just have to trust that it is going to be good, but it is going to take a while to understand it. The singing is good, of course, because it’s Jason McMaster. You have to be a fan of high singing, although his voice is a bit lower now as a man in his fifties, considering how high his singing was in the 1980s and early 1990s. The drumming, for fans of technical and progressive, really needs no introduction as Hannes Grossman is as good as it gets in extreme drumming. Davide Tiso shows, if we may say so, some of the most riff-focused metal that we have heard from him. It’s not avant-garde per se, but it is progressive and there are plenty of riffs (not chugging, not plucking away at the low strings) but they go sideways often. Make no mistake about it, HS does want you, the discerning listener, to join the intellectual musical experience. howlingsycamore.bandcamp.com