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Review
In an effort to support relatively unknown musical talents worldwide, I started searching Youtube (and other less-known websites) for young musicians who are composing their own material, recording it and somehow exposing it to the world through demos, Youtube videos and through small download/share websites. I stumbled upon an original entitled “Betrayal in Silence – Original progressive metal song written by J. Rush”, a brilliant instrumental song, with a style that reminded me of instrumental bands like “Scale the Summit”, “Animals as Leaders”, etc. This next video is actually the two guitarists (Jordan Rush and Alex Wheeler) playing the song. You’ll notice the nice general flow of the song (give it more than 1 listen) and you’ll also notice how they mixed progressive “technicality” with melody.
I also checked out “Exiled”, “The Forest (Atrocities)” and “Rorschach” with a pre-assumption that I might get bored with the instrumental aspect of the music, but I surprisingly got hooked to each song’s flow, since the composing is beautifully “directed” so to speak.
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Also check out this Born of Osiris Cover!
The New Rain (cover for Born of Osiris):
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Interview with Jordan Rush
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Starting off with an obvious question: you composed the songs obviously but do you play/record all the instruments? In that case, can you perform live?
I wrote all the songs except “For Nevermore” which was a semi-impromptu jam with my dad, he laid down the keyboard/piano tracks and I played guitar over it. Other than that I played all the guitars, keyboards and bass but for the drums I played them on the keyboard with a pretty legitimate drum patch, no drum machine or anything like that. I would have mic’d my actual set but budget constraints and such didn’t allow for that. I’m hoping with the next album I can get real acoustic drums on there. Unfortunately right now I don’t play live right now, eventually I would like to get a whole band together and play shows. Right now its just me and my guitarist and dear friend Alex Wheeler.
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The songs have a strong Progressive MetalCore feel to them; would you say they incorporate all your influences as a musician?
Well they definitely incorporate my biggest influences over the past few years, As I Lay Dying, Protest the Hero and Dream Theater but I’ve recently gotten into Born of Osiris and Animals as Leaders a lot lately and have been really inspire by their sound so I believe the next album or next group of songs will have a more heavy, jazzy style to them. But when I write songs I never know which direction they’re headed and that’s kind of exciting for me. But that’s what progressive is to me, not how many time signature changes you can incorporate but progression towards song writing and musicianship and pushing the envelope for yourself as a musician.
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The 3 Reigns is on Sale at iTunes! How’s that going for you? Any solid response from listeners worldwide?
It’s not a bad start for someone with little to no promotion! It’s paid a few bills here and there but obviously playing live and/or being signed to a large label would definitely help. I’ve gotten more responses from kids outside of America, mostly Europe, nothing too big from Japan yet haha but hopefully soon. But I’m not surprised, usually people here want “brutal” heaviness and don’t pay as much attention to the technical side of metal, which is fine. Different strokes for different folks.
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Do you have any musical goals at the moment? Perhaps playing show with Dream Theater or Protest the Hero would be a dream come true right…
Right now the biggest goal is getting a band together so we can play shows! But playing with Dream Theater or Protest the Hero would be a huge accomplishment!! I try to pace myself and avoid setting goals that are clearly unreachable at the moment, but soon I’ll get there!
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Any last words for novice composers around the world and for the LebMetal.com readers?
