{"id":762,"date":"2026-09-04T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/04\/mindblowing-antithesis-of-the-eras-knuckleheaded-rap-rock-when-candirias-sound-of-new-york-city-played-tool-meshuggah-and-devin-townsend-at-their-own-game\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T17:00:00","slug":"mindblowing-antithesis-of-the-eras-knuckleheaded-rap-rock-when-candirias-sound-of-new-york-city-played-tool-meshuggah-and-devin-townsend-at-their-own-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/04\/mindblowing-antithesis-of-the-eras-knuckleheaded-rap-rock-when-candirias-sound-of-new-york-city-played-tool-meshuggah-and-devin-townsend-at-their-own-game\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cMindblowing antithesis of the era\u2019s knuckleheaded rap-rock\u201d: When Candiria\u2019s sound of New York City played Tool, Meshuggah and Devin Townsend at their own game"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Candiria are often regarded as a cross-genre band, although many listeners don\u2019t include prog rock among those genres. Hailing from New York City\u2019s borough of Brooklyn, their first two albums were impressive enough. But 1999\u2019s <\/em>The Process of Self-Development remains the best example of their prowess, power \u2013 and progressive tendencies.<\/em><\/p>\n

Though it was a famously difficult decade for traditional heavy metal, the 90s still managed to spark several fresh revolutions. Echoing the groundbreaking efforts of Tool<\/a>, Meshuggah<\/a> and Devin Townsend<\/a>, New York City produced one of the most inventive and original bands in heavy music history.<\/p>\n

Candiria were the living embodiment of all those clich\u00e9s about the Big Apple being a perennial melting pot,. The emerged from the streets of Brooklyn with a sound that incorporated almost everything the city had to offer.<\/p>\n

Built upon wild, intricate riffs and liberated jazz sensibilities, their songs were both challenging and thrillingly visceral, with elements of hip-hop, bebop and abstract noise woven through a central core of out-there riffing and brutish, hardcore punk vocals courtesy of livewire frontman Carley Coma.<\/p>\n

Very much a work in progress on 1995 debut album Surrealistic Madness<\/em>, Candiria swiftly evolved into something extraordinary. Beyond Reasonable Doubt<\/em> (1997) was a significant step forward \u2013 but it was their third album that gleefully blew the doors off. <\/p>\n

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Released at the arse-end of the decade, The Process Of Self-Development <\/em>was the mindblowing antithesis of the knuckleheaded rap-rock that was dominating the airwaves. Ferociously intelligent and utterly fearless, it still sounds ahead of its time.<\/p>\n

If prog metal has a tendency to rely on well-worn, decades-old tropes, nobody told Candiria. The Process Of Self-Development<\/em> is dominated by punishingly heavy but irrevocably weird songs that are driven by obtuse, freewheeling riffs that often make Meshuggah\u2019s bewildering polyrhythms seem neat and straightforward.<\/p>\n

Infused with the head-nod spirit of urban rap, and prone to sudden, surreal embellishments sent from deep leftfield, songs like Three Times Again<\/em>, Temple Of Sickness<\/em> and Elevate In Madness<\/em> turned metal inside-out, reimagining it as a logical progression from Miles Davis<\/a>\u2019 electric era as well as the gritty clangour of New York hardcore.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, on the perverse, psychedelic Pull<\/em>, and particularly on the smoky, brass-led Matter. Anti. Matter<\/em>, Candiria explored their jazz influences with a casual authenticity that cannot be faked. <\/p>\n

In contrast, Method Of Expression<\/em> and Down To The Last Element<\/em> were brooding, edgy hip-hop cuts, and an impressive demonstration of Coma\u2019s rhyming skills. <\/p>\n

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Concluding with the esoteric funk grooves and tribal percussion of the title track along with the spaced-out dub of Leaving The Atmosphere<\/em>, Candiria\u2019s farewell to the 20th century boasted more smart ideas per square inch than most bands could muster in a lifetime.<\/p>\n

Later albums continued the New Yorkers\u2019 ambitious approach to varying degrees of underground success, but it was The Process Of Self-Development<\/em> that most accurately defined their boundary-shattering bravery, and proud stewardship of the musical city that never sleeps.<\/p>\n<\/article>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Candiria are often regarded as a cross-genre band, although many listeners don\u2019t include prog rock among those genres. Hailing from New York City\u2019s borough of Brooklyn, their first two albums were impressive enough. But 1999\u2019s The Process of Self-Development remains the best example of their prowess, power \u2013 and progressive tendencies. Though it was a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}