There's something about a seven-piece band from Québec with a seven minute track entitled "Intro" that just turns your head. Welwitschia has "talent" written all over them. The quite unusual lineup including 3 drummers, 2 guitarists, a bassist, and a projectionist arms the band for impressive bouts of percussive rage, as well as melodic noodling of the guitars. "Intro" winds the tension for five minutes with soft background ambience and soft strokes of the guitars, but around the five minute mark the drummers catch sight of what is developing and begin a devastating pillage. The guitarists do their best to keep up with the brute force percussion, but there's no way this act can be stopped once everyone is fully engaged.

Beware of this band's first proper release, which is currently in the works and should be out by the end of the year. This could be the dark horse of the year.

-Jordan Volz