Well get ready for Son, the 3rd single that will be released in about an hour, we are also looking for 2 openers for a mini-tour we will do to warm-up for the Negative Tour, dates are here:

7 Levels of Hell Tour
20/Oct Mexico City, Estadio Azteca
21/Oct Los Angeles, Staples Center
23/Oct New York, Madison Square Garden
24/Oct Toronto, Air Canada Centre
26/Oct London, Earls Court
29/Oct Tokyo, Tokyo Dome
31/Oct Hell's Night

EDIT: Well sad news, the album has been pushed til October 17th, still the new single has been released

Edited by user 17 October 2009 10:35:01(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Well after the wait here it comes, Insolent Paradox's new album, so they gave us short (not so short) previews through this last month, Steps was released as the first single and then came Hell and Son, all of them stunning tracks we could see a great plot and great mucisianship, definitely an evolution that will please most if not all of the band-fans, so to make a complex story short, the protagonist (small kid/teen/young adult) goes through a series of digraces, he then realizes that to succeed he needs to act as everyone around him instead of "turning the other cheek".
When you have great lyrics it is hard that music doesnt goes 2nd in priority, well now its backwards, though the band stated they wrote the album's music and lyrics around the concept the music by far exceeds the lyrics' quality, long instrumental and solo sections (the album almost equals both the band's past albums time), the use of vocals as an instrument, and new instruments like acoustic and slide guitars, harmonica, and a saxophone solo played by Johnny Reed (Oceans' sax) on I Am.

SON



Steps 9:53 (Lugo, Schuter)
Hell 11:29 (Marquez, Lugo)
Son 21:49 (Apreza)
Joy 5:26 (Lugo)
Reality 4:01 (Apreza, Schuter, Lugo)
The Sinner & The Priest 7:38 (Apreza, Lugo, Schuter)
I Am 14:31 (Apreza)
Highway 10:23 (Schuter, Marquez)
Farewell, Innocence 8:12 (Lugo, Apreza)
New Days 13:04 (Lugo, Apreza)

Plot summary:
There was once a small kid, son of nobody, his two parents were on a eternal struggle, ignored by everyone, his parents leave him behind [Steps], and he is took by another couple, uncapable of having sons of their own, after a while the working man (adoptive father) gets fired and they fell in disgrace, they take each other lives, and harm the kid [Hell], the kid is then readopted by his parents [Son], in need of love he forgives them and live happily for a while [Joy] until a car accident happens, now the orphanage wont take him, so he wanders the streets, being mistreated by everyone [Reality], until he is took in by a church that sends him to a seminary, he becomes a christian until he starts asking him questions [The Sinner & The Priest], before he actually becomes a priest he runs away and on some pub somewhere he starts wondering about himself [I Am], later on that same pub he sees the people around him, and realizes they are all as miserable as him (on the same path) [Highway], he realizes that to avoid becoming one of them he needs to start acting as all those that mistreated him, since they all are succesful people now [Farewell, Innocence], the album ends with a thriving instrumental [New Days].

Favorite track for each bandmember:
Daniel - The Sinner & The Priest
Jose - Hell
Hector - I Am
Erik - New Days

Future singles:
I Am Single Release date: Oct 20th
Highway Single Release date: Oct 27th
Farewell, Innocence Single Release date: Nov 2nd
New Days Single Release date: Nov 6th

Edited by user 18 October 2009 08:32:24(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Goddamn! Those are some serious chart positions! Congrats guys, glad to say I contributed in buying a copy. Hell and New Days are my favorites, and I love the sax on I Am. Another phenomenal album from you guys.

-Brian
The Wicker Man

We've been nominated for TWO!!! motherfuckin birdies, for best album and best artwork, that is pure awesomeness, anyway even if we dont win it's amazing to be nominated.
-Jose

Well, after Oceans debut, Jose Lugo will be releasing 2 instrumental albums and 4 singles (2 for each album) in the next 2 months, more reports to come.

After the.. weirdness that was Atom Heart Mother, and the expectation that followed it, here comes a pack of 3 original songs, and the third release recorded at the new ? Studios in Cuernavaca. Samples for everyone.

Brainsong (Lugo/Apreza) 3:00

Well, this is at least intriguing, the song starts with an intricante guitar "riff" and then a section of weirdly harmonic echange between guitar chords, violin notes and keyboard samples reminding producing an actual melody composed of death metal chords, a twisted romantic-esque violin line and well.. Jose's keyboard experiments, the song contains no solo, at least not a structured one, and its surprising by its short length for Insolent Paradox's standards, yet is a masterpiece the lyrics written by Hector tell a story of a man looking for his sister in a land inhabited by red walking televisions and a backwards racoon ridden by a fat cowboy with no legs, eventually the man finds his sister, but she is now married to a "short man with gigantism", so his head deataches from his body to dance the boogie with a bunch of Venezuelan politics, and his body decides that since there is no escape from that land it might as well stay and grow carrots with the backwards mapache and the fat cowboy, the song ends with another man encountering the three asking them where he is and where can he find his wife

Breath (Lugo/Apreza) 11:25

This is sort of an ambient piece, in the words of Erik "So Daniel was in a short studio vacation and I was finishing this song while Jose and Hector were fooling around in the studio, and I recall Hector doing weird stuff with his echo pedal, and Jose trying to plug this other echo pedal to a keyboard, so you know after a while, Jim came in and heard something interesting, so he asked them to repeat it and I think it ended up being the mid-section of this track". Jim Garrison (producer) said this was mostly the section mentioned by Erik with a few guitar figures over it. Instrumental

Built (Marquez) 4:10

A left-out from the album, a normal thrash song with an outstanding solo and some good lyrics, but overall it's an average track.

Insolent Paradox is:
Jose Lugo (bass, keyboards, violin)
Hector Apreza (guitars, drums, keyboards)
Daniel Marquez (vocals, guitars)
Erik Schuter (drums, percussion)

Recorded @ ? Studios
Recorded by Jim Garrison & Insolent Paradox
Engineered by Tony Garrison
Produced by Insolent Paradox, Jim Garrison
Mixed by Braulio Ayala
No additional musicians

Well..erm thanks a lot you know The Black Gates, Sudan and all those bands that came even before Nimrods are great and they'll be greater if they didnt released a record every plutonian year, hahaha no seriously they're great and well of course we'd like youto produce the next record, now ths one's done but we dont know what's to come after the tour which will be huge and if you're ready to put up with Jim (our current producer, he's not going away.. sadly) and all of us and our little obsessions sure you can produce, in fact we'd love it, we'll talk to you after the tour's done

-Jose

Alright so as a pseudo-Christmas single we released the last bit of Thoughtcrime you'll get before the album goes out and we got major success, no it is our biggest success to date:

Will of the Sphinx (Marquez) 9:31
So, this is the album, highly anti-militar song that made it to number one the day after Christmas, it starts with a pounding drum track joined by a bass riff about 20 seconds into the track, unlike the surreal humoristic tale that is Brainsong, this track is based upon the first two albums from the band, a highly political and more focused sound instead of the difuse sound and surreal, humanistic lyrics featured on the last record, the first part lyrics tell the story of a soldier, recalling his early life where he worshipped the army and the time when he was recruited, followed by his lost of faith over the time where he had been in the warzone, then the song goes into a mid slow paced section with The Soldier facing The Child (himself when he worshipped the army), The Father (his father telling him to make the country proud) and The Sphinx (some sort of officer ordering him to stay loyal to the country), all parts of himself that tell him to fight for his country, the soldier tries to scare the voices away and leave the army, at the end he goes out to the field and the song ends suddenly, a short outro reminding of a militar anthem follows suggesting the soldier died, a promo video was shot with pictures from war and several (traumatizing) facts about war on the last 100 years.

Angry Chair 5:42
Well, two covers were released as b-sides this one is mostly the same as AIC's song in structure, but it's filled with drones and turned into a doom metal tune

Banned In DC 1:36
The second cover is the exact opposite, being Bad Brains's classic hardcore song on speed with the last quiet section being a bit cut out, and a bass solo not present on the original track from about 0:42 to 0:56.

charts:

UK - 1
USA - 1
Canada - 1
Aus & Nz - 1
South America - 1
Asia - 1
Europe - 2
World - 1
OOC: highest charts I ever got

Alright so news on a release...

A live DVD is coming up soon!, (you really thought that was about the album didnt you?)

It is from back in the Memories tour so it will be entitled with the super-imaginative title of Live Memory, (we actually played a song yet unreleased, find it there most likely it wont ever see the light for many different reasons, and Altar, an epic b-side we still play from time to time), so Live Memory will not go on CD, but there'll be an EP released. A raw cut of this was already available but we edited it, added new takes, and upgraded the audio and video. Oh and by the way we developed a conscience and we'll donate the money we earn to building appropiate schools across the rural zone of Guerrero (a province in Mexico, Hector and Eric come from there), the DVD itself is under Creative Commons and you can find it here for free streaming. So mostly it is up for you to pay, see that was made to make you feel guilty.

EP Tracklist:

OOC: This was actually an RP done a while ago, kind of crappy but I didnt wanted it to be lost in the sands of time so I went hunting for it in the forum.


Live Memory
Altar
Worldwide Laboratory
Thick as A Brick

Played at the now dissapeared We Love Music Stadium

Tracklist
Drum Solo
Horrorscope
Pieces/Chaos In Hell
Worldwide Laboratory
Altar
Remember
Facing The Abyss/Under The Mountain
Encore Break
Death and Beginning
Even Flow
Perfectionist
Evolution of Man and Animal
Wont Get Fooled Again
The New Order/Solo Jam/Anger Manifesto
Encore Break 2
Last Caress/Insolent Paradox
Thick As A Brick
Gates to Awakening
Windwalker

Daniel goes out on the stage that only features some strange figures and the band logo as scenography
"Hey, hey"
"Im gonna leave you a bit with my friend over here, scream for MR. ERIK SCHUTER"

Then Erik starts playing a drum solo using his entire drum kit, it slowly starts building from a simple double bass drum beat to a unbeliavable madness, after 2 minutes of octopuss-like drumming, he stops and starts playing the bass drum beat from the beginning on a brazilian-like percussion kit, then he accelerates and falls, he ends up playing the same beat on percussion, bass-drums, and tom-toms at a incredibly fast tempo, then the rest of the band finally comes in, Jose speaks

"So now we are playing this.. kind of small jam we do it is a real classic of thrash, you should know it, this is..ehm.. Horrorscope" The band starts playing a weird rendition of Horrorscope, it is infused with a doom like feeling, Daniel here uses the highest pitch he can achieve, the song speeds up right before the solo, and then the band stops playing, after this short pause, Daniel screams and then Hector starts playing the weirdest solo he could made on an Overkill song with some pedals, the song stops and speeds up during the solo, then Daniel and Jose get on a bass vs guitar duel, after that the band gets backs on the chorus, and they end the song.

"Are you bored?"The crowd screams"I dont know (laughs), this next songs are done for you to slam, I've been said WLM prepared the stadium to do that, right? Hector plays 3 simple notes that make the stadium a sanitarium for a while, then he stops, then Dani screams "Chaos In Hell" The band plays a fast paced version of this song, the crowd makes several mosh pits, then the band reaches a jazzy breakdown, they start playing Pieces with no pause between songs, then instead of Hector playing the solo of the song, Jose plays a slap version of this on his bass, once the song is done, Hector comes up to the mic and says:"Well on our American tour, we have been playing this song, it was supposed to go on our next album, but we changed plans so it wont be out for a while, but it is a great track so here it is, WORLD WIDE LABORATORY!!!...", they go on playing the fast riff of this song, til they arrive to a chaotic solo where Hector incorportes dissonant chords and Jose plays a Cynic-styled bassline, then after the song reaches its climax, it simply fades.

Then Dani speaks: "So how about now, are you having a good time?, here is one only true fans know, a 27-minute epic, Altar", they play a series of chord proggressions along with the main sound structure and bring in a few major songs by other bands between riffs, when the song is done, Hector says: "ehmm.. thanks, we are playing Remember", they play through this song with a low-tune, without major changes from the original song.

The band members talk for a while then Daniel starts playing a growing arpeggio, that after a while the crowd recognizes as Facing The Abyss, then they play throught the slow paced part of this song but then instead of playing the bridge to the fast part of the song, they shift to the slow part from Under the Mountain, the band then reaches the bridge of the 2nd song and then shifts again to Facing the Abyss, they continue to do this and when they finally get to the heavy part of Facing the Abyss, they play through it normally again, when they reach the solo, Daniel starts playing the solo of Under the Mountain, and Hector plays the solo of Abyss, while they do this twisted guitar duel, Jose and Erik play a funk-styled rhythm, once the band is done with this chaotic section, the Stadium's light go out and the band goes away.

A while later the four of them (Jose with a two-neck bass) go back and with no introduction they go into the 11-minute epic Death And Beginning, Dani does this on a guttural voice, while Hector does backing vocals on a grindcore style, overall this song here is played practically from a full death/grindcore approach, when the song is done Jose puts his two neck bass down and a roadie hands him his normal 5-string bass. Again with no introduction the band goes on a strange to extremes jazz/prog metal rendition of Even Flow, with Hector doing the main vocals, the solo is played by Daniel while the rest of the song fades away. Daniel speaks:
"Now we are gonna play a song we'd like to do the way it was recorded, this is Perfectionist"

The band does this with a extended solo, then they play Evolution of Man and Animal, also with no major changes or technical wankery, then they proceed to play another weird version this time from The Who's Wont Get Fooled Again, this one is just played with catchy riffs and huge rhythm base, deconstructing the song and rebuilding it as an Insolent Paradox song with several crescendos, when the band reaches that famous scream Daniel puts all his voice into it, the lights go out and then the lights go on and the band continues to play, once they are done the crowd goes mad, Jose then goes to the mic and says:
"So I heard you like thrash, huh?, this is New Order from Testament"

The band again plays a more normal, not so experimental song, and at the end the band goes into a solo duel ending with the band using all their potential, then they start playing the bridge and outro from Anger Manifesto, after that they take another encore break
The crowd starts thinking about going to take a break and buying something else before the other band starts playing, but then the band surprises them with Last Caress from Misfits, which they use as an intro to one of their major songs named just like the band, Insolent Paradox, the vocals here are the standout, then Jose Lugo takes a flute, and Dani says:
"Yes, we can play several instruments, do you by any chance know a band named Jethro Tull?"
Crowd screams "YEEEEEAAAAHHHHH"
"So, this is Thick as a brick"
This is another highlight on their performance, they keep alternating between Tull's atmosphere and a Slayer-ish riffage on every chorus and verse, the band then goes on tornado of riffs with Jose playing flute, definitely one of the best moments of the concert
The band starts playing a riff that most of the audience recognizes immediately as Gates to Awakening, the band plays and ends this song normally
Then Dani screams (again):
"And then came the WINDWALKER!!!"
The band starts playing the song, and when they reach the solo the stage figures on the back start moving after this tornado of notes, the band ends its performance, as a goodbye Dani says:
"Enjoy the other bands, hope you still have enough healthy bones to keep moshing, buy our records, we were Insolent Paradox, now fuck off"

Edited by user 29 December 2009 10:39:00(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Running time: Around 60 minutes


1. Spiritual Redemption (Marquez) 6:14

The intro to the album, an instrumental song starting with a doom metal feel, pushed forward by a demolishing guitar riff which is the core of the song, it also has a pounding, complex bassline that, like in other songs by the band, is used as the lead instead of the base and vocal harmonies sung by all the bandmembers, after the crunchy riff ends about halfway thru the song, the speed increases and turns into a speed metal tune with guitar solos played by both of the axeman's with the bass and drums in the background.

2. Brainsong (Lugo/Apreza) 3:00

Well, this is at least intriguing, the song starts with an intricante guitar "riff" and then a section of weirdly harmonic echange between guitar chords, violin notes and keyboard samples reminding producing an actual melody composed of death metal chords, a twisted romantic-esque violin line and well.. Jose's keyboard experiments, the song contains no solo, at least not a structured one, and its surprising by its short length for Insolent Paradox's standards, yet is a masterpiece the lyrics written by Hector tell a story of a man looking for his sister in a land inhabited by red walking televisions and a backwards racoon ridden by a fat cowboy with no legs, eventually the man finds his sister, but she is now married to a "short man with gigantism", so his head deataches from his body to dance the boogie with a bunch of Venezuelan politics, and his body decides that since there is no escape from that land it might as well stay and grow carrots with the backwards mapache and the fat cowboy, the song ends with another man encountering the three asking them where he is and where can he find his wife

3. Deeper (Lugo/Apreza) 5:10

One of the best songs lyrically in the record, it is a ballad built around simple acoustic guitars, the song is a monologue told from an man apparently digging a grave talking the situation of their country (Mexico) to an old friend of himself that left the country before the drug explosion in Mexico. The old man apparently became involved with some drug dealers and himself over time became one, it also deals with the relationship between the United States and Mexico, the corruption in the country and what (from the point of view of the band) should be done to fix it, the grave is said to be the grave of the country. As stated before the song is extremely simple and only features acoustic guitars and a simple synthetizer.

4. Growth [Bios I] (Schuter) 4:52

Another instrumental, the band has stated the "Bios" series is done as a music transcription of each one of the Wu Xing states of matter, this being first and it is slow paced and calmed, works as some sort of interludium between the calm part of the album and the harder one, about this track, Jose Lugo says: "It was Erik's idea, we are not quite erudites about this sort of things but some how he found out about it and it seems as an interesting concept so we all supported it"

5. Thoughtcrime (Apreza) 3:26

The title track speaks about freedom of beliefs and of thoughts, it is a thrash song infused with grooves, reminding late 90s Overkill, the soloing in this song is truly amazing mixing classic techniques and heavily distorted and altered sounds, an effects pedal was modified by Hector for this song specially creating weird effects that give the song an eastern feel, the bass solo is also remarkable and the drum track is pounding and holds the whole song together

6. Machine Dreams (Lugo) 14:37

This track is one possibly the one that best resumes the sound of this album, it includes heavy riffing, calm sections and abstract nonsense, it's Jose's epic about a robot and its thoughts, located in the near future and influenced by almost every story talking about stuff similar to this, in his life the machine becomes a famous musician under a psudonym, escapes from his life, meets a giant, a man inheriting great fortune, a deserted soldier and meets the love of his life just 3 seconds before she is run over by a bus, he fins himself unable to cry, and after this sad incident he retreats to and reflections about what is a human and what makes him different, at the end he comes to to realize that humanity is a state of mind rather than a physical state

7. Of My Own Soul (Marquez/Apreza) 6:12

This is a song following the footsteps of bands like Psychotic Waltz, while leaving the really proggressive stuff aside, the instrumental technicality and the vocal range they show makes the song an outstanding one, again the real treat in this one are the vocals, the evolution of the vocals Daniel has had is truly amazing

8. Gente Trivial (Marquez/Lugo/Schuter/Apreza) 4:06

Their first recorded song sung in Spanish, meaning its their first song in Spanish since the very birth of the band, Gente Trivial is about politicians, the track is left behind to show off the vocals, the vocal line has many unexpected twists that give it folksy sort of touch, the song was penned after the band was criticized for never singing in Spanish.

9. Will of the Sphinx (Marquez) 9:31

So this is the highly anti-militar song that made it to number one the day after Christmas, it starts with a pounding drum track joined by a bass riff about 20 seconds into the track, unlike the surreal humoristic tale that is Brainsong, this track is based upon the first two albums from the band, a highly political and more focused sound instead of the difuse sound and surreal, humanistic lyrics featured on the last record, the first part lyrics tell the story of a soldier, recalling his early life where he worshipped the army and the time when he was recruited, followed by his lost of faith over the time where he had been in the warzone, then the song goes into a mid slow paced section with The Soldier facing The Child (himself when he worshipped the army), The Father (his father telling him to make the country proud) and The Sphinx (some sort of officer ordering him to stay loyal to the country), all parts of himself that tell him to fight for his country, the soldier tries to scare the voices away and leave the army, at the end he goes out to the field and the song ends suddenly, a short outro reminding of a militar anthem follows suggesting the soldier died, a promo video was shot with pictures from war and several (traumatizing) facts about war on the last 100 years.

10. Darksong (Apreza) 5:33

Closing track on the record, introducing Goth elements and a sound mixing Shoegaze, Industrial and Thrash creating a truly unique sound, the riffing is mostly synthetized thrash with a heavy distortion going on and the voice is modified with a slight echo effect, the lyrics are anti-drugs and the track includes a completely improvised jazzy breakdown.

Insolent Paradox is:
Hector Apreza (guitars, percussion, vocals)
Jose Lugo (bass, keyboards, violin, vocals)
Daniel Marquez (guitar, vocals)
Erik Schuter (drums, percussion, vocals)

Recorded @ ? Studios in Cuernavaca, Mexico
Released by Anti-Pop Records
Produced by Insolent Paradox, Jim Garrison
Recorded by Jim Garrison & Tony Garrison
Engineered by Lee Marions, Tony Garrison, Yael Gonzalez & Daniel Gomiz
Mixed by Braulio Ayala & Daniel Gomiz