Aural Decay talk influences

Brit metal prog project, AURAL DECAY ( https://www.facebook.com/auraldecayproject/ ) , are turning heads with their new single and video, Savages, out now – https://youtu.be/o_WMuHnjbts . We asked Dan from Aural Decay to give six track that have influenced him:

“Meshuggah – Dancers To A Discordant System

There are so many great riffs in this song that demonstrate how outrageous you can be with your rhythmical ideas. The previous Aural Decay single ‘Facing the Obscure’ was heavily influenced by this track; a lot of the riffs I wrote for that were based around Meshuggah’s approach to using polyrhythms, although it’s a long way from being as complex as this stuff!

Gojira – Toxic Garbage Island

I was in the process of becoming a huge Gojira fan during the writing of the debut Aural Decay single ‘Spiralling Down’. Around this time most of the bands I was listening to were either on 7 strings or tuning down heavily, but Gojira pulled me back from that with some of the heaviest Drop D/Drop C playing I’d heard in a long time. Their combination of heaviness and beauty for me is what makes them one of the biggest metal bands in today’s scene.

Lamb of God – Laid to Rest

​Lamb of God really laid all of the other metal bands to rest when they released this track. I may have gone for the obvious choice but I think most of my teenage Drop D warriors will agree with me that this will always rank amongst one of our favourite riffs to play. Learning Lamb of God songs is a stepping stone I would advise to any aspiring metal guitarists.

TesseracT – Of Matter

​Of Matter was my first introduction to the band TesseracT. The three-part epic that kicks off their Altered State album was a song that really struck a chord with me. It was a display of progressive metal that despite its length and complexity, felt accessible due to its memorable vocal hooks and soaring melodies. I find myself also greatly influenced by their monstrous production values, with guitarist Acle Kahney taking a spot as one of my favourite producers.

Periphery – Icarus Lives!

​The classic prog metal track was my first ever taste of modern progressive metal. It was around midway through my university degree when I was checking out various influences that my peers were sharing at the time. I simply couldn’t get enough of the opening riff, but as the song goes on it really opens up and catches you off guard with multiple groove switches. Periphery demonstrated new heights of guitar playing and musical complexity and quickly became a band I aspired toward.

TOOL – Jambi

​I’ve always felt like Adam Jones has a very unique approach to his playing. I was playing the intro riff to this song wrong for years and I always felt the way Jones holds down the various intricate palm-muted riffs that run throughout this song (the song is also in 9/8 time) is extremely impressive. He is a guitarist I will always take great influence from.”

For more on AURAL DECAY, see – https://open.spotify.com/artist/2EG2ZUHHJuzmpWyjYH3o2Y

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