Discoveries: Benea Reach and Nazi Zombies

Two posts in two days, egads, I'm on fire!

This past week our household decided to finally give Bell the boot and switched over to a more reliable provider, as well as ISP. As a result I ended up spending a considerable amount of time on Netflix over the course of the week which I'd neglected for a short while.

Whilst perusing for a movie to watch late one night I went on a zombie craze but was turned into a sad panda when Død Snø (or Dead Snow) which I had seen when it came out a couple years ago wasn't available on Netflix. Not only is it a movie about Nazi Zombies but its one of the best zombie movies in recent memory, and it also has one of the most awesome tracks playing during it's scenes - one of the things that also popped into my head when I decided to go on a mad quest to watch this movie at 3AM.

So naturally once I finally found it, I had to both rewatch this bloody gorefest, but also had to stay for the credits to find the name of this this awesome track, and find the band associated with it.

I could have just as easily google'd it, but who wants to pass up a zombie horror comedy? Not this guy.

An hour and a half and many bloody deaths later, I was rewarded when the credits started rolling and I found the answer to my question.

Benea Reach is an extreme metalcore band from Oslo Norway (also where Dead Snow was filmed) who have been around since 2003. Originally a six member outfit, they've also been known to record and tour with up to seven members.

The track from Dead Snow which introduced me to these guys is entitled Awakening and is also the first track off of their sophomore album Alleviat released back in 2008.

Benea Reach fuses elements of math metal polyrhythms, breakdowns signature to the hardcore scene and some good old progressive overtones. Their records also include well placed interludes with soft melodies, and superbly executed vocals, both low and high, clean and screamed, whether by frontman Illka Volume or guest vocalists, notably Maria Solheim.

Alleviat is a record I would have definitely liked to discover years ago when it first came out. It seems to always be the case when discovering great talent from across the pond, but it's always in interesting ways - like watching a slew of zombies getting hacked to pieces, that I manage to discover my new favorite groups of the moment.

While relatively quiet recently, Benea Reach did release two new demo tracks earlier this month which are available on their Sign Me to Roadrunner page and detailed that they're working on a third full length album. They also released footage from their stint last year on the Great Indian Rock Festival.

Their new website is still listed as under construction but you can always check them out on their facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/beneareach, follow their progress on Twitter by following @BeneaReach and check out some live footage on their YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/beneareach.

As always, here's a taste of Benea Reach with their track Awakening, which I encourage you all to check out if you're unfamiliar with the group. And if you're unfamiliar with Dead Snow, well - I can't think of any better reason than to say it's a gorefest with Nazi Zombies and this song is in the movie, so watch it. Now.


- J

Floors: Ridiculously Comfortable Sleeping Surfaces

This Monday will mark the start to the first full week of classes at the University of Ottawa, as me and my fellow slaves invaded the halls of the campus on Wednesday of last week.

My first week was short, considering I have Tuesdays and Fridays off this fall. But my first day, last Wednesday, was quite fun indeed, as you may recall. Despite the fact I have no classes on Tuesday and Friday, I do still work all day, on each, so there's little solace in that fact.

On my scale of sort of long to ridiculously long days, my Mondays (10AM to 7PM) and Wednesdays (8AM to 8PM) aim to land right in the range of the annoyingly long variety.

Now we can't forget about Thursdays, in which I work my regular eight hours (7.5 if you want to be 'like that') and follow it up with a three hour lecture from 7-10PM.

But there's still hope! Thursdays I get to bask in the glory of that which is: sleeping on a floor.

Yup, a floor. A very comfortable floor, thank you very much, so set your glaring envy aside and get your own. I've been lucky enough to get loaned said floor on Thursday evenings, if necessary, by a few very classy individuals. They also loaned me an air mattress, that pretty much deflates until you're laying on the floor. So for all intents and purposes, I sleep on a floor.

It also gives me a chance to unwind after back-to-back long days, watch a couple of movies and almost fall asleep wearing my headphones while listening to Baroness at 1:30AM, because I'm a crazy person who stays up all night. Good times indeed.

On a side note, I got to re-watch Crash this past Thursday - while on the aforementioned floor. It's been a while since I last saw it and it remains a real triumph of cinematography and storytelling. The television series that was inspired by it - and is produced by the film's director Paul Haggis - is still currently hanging in the balance, as far as a third season is concerned. Mainly following the death of Dennis hopper, who was one of the main 'protagonists' of the series.

Here's to a week of long days, lots of potential swearing in German and sleeping on floors.

Keep it classy Bytown - derp, Ottawa.