Mandroid Echostar

Mandroid Echostar’s Guelph Unveiling!
by: Katy Butters
Mandroid Echostar. The name that began as a high school kid’s moniker is now title to one of Guelph’s newest and most promising progressive metal bands. Their Guelph unveiling this coming Wednesday (put on by Knightowl Promotions — a subsidiary of GAIN Music — and Kronik Noise), alongside Farewell to Freeway, Wakeless, and Arkham Awaits, has been met with untethered enthusiasm and exhausted anticipation. Needless to say, I was pumped to get a chance to sit down with vocalist Michael Ciccia and drummer Matt H-K to chat about the release of their first EP and how Mandroid came to be.
VR: Congratulations on the release! Before we get into the EP, can you tell me a bit about the formation of Mandroid Echostar?
Matt: Originally it was me and our bassist Adam and one of our guitarists, Sam. We were definitely heavier before. After a while we tried to find another screamer but quickly realized that that’s not what we wanted to do. For me, a lot of my favourite bands had singers. Eventually we got Mike on board and it guided our style. That’s what really made our sound, I think. When he joined and we decided we’d write our kind of music to his kind of vocals and mine. So that’s kind of how we got to where we are.
Mike: I knew of them before I even joined. I thought, this is fantastic; these are some of the greatest players I’ve ever heard. But in the back of my head I thought they were too good to muddy it up with screaming. I thought singing would make them a step above everyone else. And it’s just been a huge growing experience. Everyone kind of comes from a different area. But what makes us unique is that we can come together on something and we all love every song we write. It’s weird to get six guys on board with one thing from all different areas.
VR: You got some great hook-ups with this EP in terms of recording and mastering. How did this come about?
Mike: Jordan Valeriote is a local hometown hero. Sam was in a band with him years ago, so we knew him through that and knew he was still in town. He’s done a lot of pretty big names – the Silverstein albums, the latest Dead and Divine album – this guy’s done a lot of big stuff and he knows his shit.
Matt: And we thought what’s the point of going somewhere with this crazy studio when you’ve got this awesome producer with a great studio. You can do the best job possible and it’s just 15 minutes away.
Mike: As for mastering, we were throwing around names but these mastering guys we were looking at did super heavy screaming vocals, but could they get heavy music and these poppy higher vocals to mesh and sound great? So I thought, what are the two best albums that I know that do this? The first two Coheed and Cambria albums. I saw Roger Lian’s name and said let’s find him. He’s done a Sheryl Crow platinum album, Rush, Deftones – he’s done heavy music beyond belief. So I emailed him. His assistant got back to me within the day. Just figured we’d aim for the stars and maybe get something out of it. That’s what puts our EP over the edge, because he really knows what he’s doing. Everything he puts in his hands is fantastic.
VR: Who wrote the lyrics and what influenced the songwriting for this EP?
Matt: That was me. I love writing about weird stuff. You hear so many bands whose lyrics are so cookie cutter and don’t mean anything. I kind of like to make ours stand apart from other bands. Our lyrics were really inspired by this one author Daniel Quinn, who wrote Ishmael. It’s about humanity, the state it’s in and used to be in, and how it’s led astray. Our lyrics are a similar philosophy but put into poetic context. I also tried to make it kind of vague so you can take your own thing from it. It’s more personal when you have your own story from these lyrics in your head and no one else’s.
VR: I gotta know, who was the comic book nerd who came up with the band name?
Matt: It’s something our bass player’s friend came up with. H - Velvet Rope Magazine

Almost two years in the making, Guelph band Mandroid Echostar‘s first EP was released on their Bandcamp page for free download (I highly recommend donation, though) on April 22, 2012. I was lucky enough to get an advanced CD copy of this 4 track EP and have listened to it almost constantly since. Right out of the gates, Kingdom And The Crown, starts quickly and surprises the listener. Maybe not every listener, but me anyway. The song, and whole EP actually, is clean and uncluttered sounding. Nothing seems mixed down too low or up too high. Every instrument is clearly heard and balanced, including the vocals. This gives the EP a fresh dynamic, or at least one you haven’t heard in a while. Instead of everything being drenched in distortion and overdubbed to make the music stand out or “Heavy”, Mandroid Echostar have taken a different approach, using riffs, balanced production and a vocalist that actually sings rather than whines. Kingdom And The Crown grabs you with it’s uptempo riff right away and within a minute thirty, of the 5 minute opening track, you’re already treated to a really understated, but perfectly situated guitar solo. If that’s not your kind of thing it’s okay, you get a blistering fast solo about half way through Kingdom And The Crown. Were Mandroid Echostar bold enough to launch with a concept EP? Lyrically you start to notice certain themes woven throughout. Lost Luminaries gives you a completely different flavour musically. Tempo/tone changes, almost choir-like vocal backing at some parts, that growl that only, guest vocalist Adam DL Lambert of Farewell To Freeway, can deliver, and bongo drums(?). You might be able to hear The Precursor on any rock radio station. It’s hook is simple and catchy but also has all the elements of a great rock song. It makes you a little sad or thoughtful about two minutes in, but turns those emotions into hope or determination, with a guitar solo and a sing-a-long, chant-like, fade out, lead by singer Michael Ciccia. And then there is HEXATON! The intro to Hexaton is like a guitar telling you the saddest story it knows, but you lack the empathy to understand why the story is sad. So the guitar, bass and drums build into desperate frustration to explain, getting faster and more intense. You still don’t understand. The vocals come in, calming everyone else down, to try to mediate the situation, but to no avail. Now all the members of Mandroid Echostar are working together in a passionate frenzy in hopes that you may have the emotion within you to understand WHY the intro guitar’s story was so sad. And then it happens. Mandroid Echostar slap your ears across the face (yep, Adam DL Lambert again). And then it’s over. It’s silent and you suddenly realize how sad the story was but it’s too late.

Is that kind of story telling is too dramatic for you? Then you might not be ready for Mandroid Echostar. With dynamic musicianship, production and song writing that is refreshing this EP was worth the wait. Mandroid Echostar use their imagination to take you on an adventure that you won’t regret. - Music Lives

Ever find a hundred dollar bill on the ground? That’s how I felt when I stumbled across a recently released EP by Canadian progressive metal band Mandroid Echostar. Initially formed in Ontario, Canada in the summer of 2010 by guitarist Sam Pattison, bassist Adam Richards, and drummer Matt H-K, they added guitarist/keyboardist James Krul, guitarist Stephen Richards, and vocalist Micheal Ciccia to round out the talented sextet.

My search process for new stuff is totally random, click a link and see if it hits me. This one knocked me out in the first round. The opening song, Kingdom and the Crown, is a beast of a piece of progressive metal; all the elements we love from the genre are present. An ominous and silent beginning last all of ten seconds before the full force salvo of music hits with authority, and it just runs beautifully from there. All instruments hit on all cylinders in a fantastic fashion, never predictable, just as good prog metal should be. Time transitions vary from smooth and silky to escalating and fiery, but always spot on. Vocalist Ciccia turns in an impeccable performance, carrying the tone of the music with precision, his voice fitting with the wide scope of the music it accompanies. Altogether, it is, simply stated, one hell of a song.

The other three songs on the EP follow suit, with pleasant surprises throughout them all, including some perfectly timed and well executed growl vocal in the last piece, Hexaton. Though the basic tone of the music remains constant, the variation in style is enough to show that there is much depth from which this band can pull from, I feel they are far from done. As a first offering from a new band, I really can’t imagine it getting much better than what this group have done, simply awesome. One can only hope that a full length album is in the works, four songs of this caliber simply beg for more. - Lady Obscure music blog

Mandroid Echostar have received more than their fair share of comparisons to Coheed and Cambria. Sure, singer Michael Ciccia has the mane and vocal register to match — and the progressive tendencies are there, too — but this Guelph band is decidedly heavier. It's not in a brawn over brains way, similar to how many "metal" bands take the road paved with breakdowns to arrive at dumbed-down aggression. Rather, it's in a highly calculated way that the band take the occasional Periphery-ism — to whose singer Ciccia's voice also bears a resemblance — and use it to balance their highly melodic side.

Following a fitting intro, duelling guitarmony begins "Ancient Arrows," the catchiest track to fall under metaldom this year. The remainder of Citadels gives Protest the Hero's latest a run for its (similarly crowdfunded) money, albeit in a more minimalistic, less bombastic way. It's a near-perfect level of technicality and melody, and although some may find themselves wishing for more heavy parts, as on Mandroid's debut, the hooks that worm their way into your consciousness will argue otherwise. - Exclaim!

There are probably some who will write off Mandroid Echostar as a Coheed and Cambria knock-off. With even the two frontmen seemingly cut from the same cloth – physically as well as sonically – this is hardly surprising, if not woefully lazy.

The truth is, whilst there are certain similarities, Mandroid are so, so much more than just that. Where there are slatherings of noodly prog, there are also slices of that quintessential metal bite. Where vocal lines soar with jealously-inducing range, there are also hints of dischordance which accent the often delicate melodies the group employ with the confidence of a band much further in their career than these young Canadians are.

“A Death Marked Dream” is about as good a prog opener as you’re going to have heard in 2013. Whilst not groundbreaking, the standalone acoustic guitar/vocals combination is both effective and expertly handled. Michael Ciccia’s voice is absolutely sublime, and whilst you’ll not hear a single growl throughout the whole record, you’ll not care.

I have so many favourite bits it’s unreal. It’s a true tell of quality that there are so many memorable parts – the post-solo riff in “Haunted Vows“; the brooding mid-song instrumental break in “To The Wolves“; the uplifting chorus section in “Ethereal Dawn” – and as such there are always one or two specific moments to look forward to in each track.

Even songs that appear to employ some of the more trite genre tropes find ways to subvert expectations. This is never more apparent than in the intro to “The Sleeper“. Low, almost common-denominator two-note djenty chugging is woven over with a delightfully-toned tapping riff after a few bars. Background and foreground guitar lines switch up phrasing in this way throughout, so that sections are rarely repeated, but it all feels within the context of the song; it’s not a random string of “oh, this sounds cool”. Even the solos – and this is true across the album – never overstep their mark, and are segued back into the natural flow of the song.

So if the band are in any way a knock-off, it’s in knocking your socks off. Citadels ups Mandroid Echostar’s game in such a way that, if there is any justice, they’ll have a long and successful career creating this kind of exuberant prog. It is accessible and without pretense, yet still feels as traditionally ‘epic’ as truly skillful examples of the genre should. - The Monolith