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Amplifier are a three piece from Manchester, UK

The band members are:
Sel Balamir - Guitar/Vocals
Neil Mahony - Bass
Matt Brobin - Drums

Amplifier are best known for their trademark massive live wall-of-distortion which is conjoured out of multiple amps and many many effects pedals. Their music is often described as progressive rock, psychedelic rock, post classic rock, melodic rock, stoner rock and mega rock

A quick history of the band would be thus:

Proto-Amplifier formed in 1998, but did their first gig on 4th May 1999 at Manchester’s Band On The Wall. After some years and many many gigs, and equally as many floors that were slept upon and miles travelled in their trusty and rusty white transit van, they signed a record deal with Music For Nations, the stalwart indie rock label that housed such names as Metallica, Slayer, Tool, Frank Zappa, err… Bowling For Soup.
They recorded their eponymously titled album in 2003, which came out in the UK in 2004, with a very very very limited run in Europe that year also. The album came out to tremendous press and a Kerrang awards best new band nomination. Unfortunately, the same week as the records release the label MFN was dissolved in a business merger between Zomba, the label’s parent company and giant corporate behemouth Sony/BMG. The band spent about year trying to get out of the clutches of their new masters, before buying their freedom in an act of artistic manumission which is called an “override” deal. Trust me, if you’re in a band - you don’t want to hear this phrase.
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  • thekillingspree wrote:
    yesterday morning
    You guys are funny. You should definitely get it on.

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  • Pk_Henry wrote:
    Friday afternoon
    Wtf are you talking about?! the only songs that were on myspace (from 2009) were the songs from Eternity (that is a release to celebrate their first decade of existence as a band), so i believe you are a bit mislead.

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  • canbera wrote:
    Thursday afternoon
    Wait, what is it with this Eternity EP? On wikipedia it is listed as a 2009 release, but I can't seem to find it anywhere. Anyways, I can't wait for the release of The Octopus... even if that album is weaker than the previous ( which is possible after two incredibly great ones ), their live show will always kick ass.

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  • thekillingspree wrote:
    Monday evening
    Same here. After listening to those MySpace tracks from Octopus I'm left wondering whatever happened to those crazy guitar riffs and amazing walls of sound... :|

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  • NickWK wrote:
    last week
    Love the debut, HAL, and Insider but I'm skeptical about Octopus from what I've already heard. Prove me wrong Sel

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  • slave_guard wrote:
    18 days ago
    Space suits > everything

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  • thekillingspree wrote:
    18 days ago
    @ unref: to help you hate me even more, I also find Radiohead boring :P It's not that I think Porcupine Tree and Radiohead are crappy bands, they're clearly NOT. I just don't like them and don't understand all the hype and fanbase around them. But all in all, music is a very subjective thing. My mistake was to think PT were a similar band to Tool, which I thought they were after listening to a couple of songs. But if I want some nice epic riffage, I go for Amplifier instead (or Tool for that matter). Also, cheers for the compliment on my music taste, unref ;) And yeah, I try to be EVERYWHERE on last.fm... even though it's tough.

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  • unref wrote:
    18 days ago
    @thekillingspree: I see you on a lot of shoutboxes of bands I like (Pumpkins, Biffy Clyro, here) so you seem to have a pretty good taste :D . BUT: How can you find Porcupine Tree boring? That is blasphemy :D No seriously (@ xanderglz): I don't think you can compare the two bands. Amplifier's compositions much more straight and the style of the two studio albums is quite similar imo whereas PT's records are pretty different (so to which PT record would you compare Amplifier?). Amplifier are much easier to listen to which makes it easier to like their music (which is a strength!), PT's strength lies in detail (headphones!), atmosphere (I get sucked into the music) and complexity of the songs without wanking on the instruments (which are other strengths). If I like two bands for different reasons they can't be too similar, right? ;)

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  • xanderglz wrote:
    19 days ago
    actually, I would like to extend on the similarity between amplifier and PT. IMO is a good thing they influence the new generation of prog bands (Amplifier, Oceansize, Dredg, Pure Reason Revolution, Riverside, Gazpacho and so on), because hey! look at all the great music we have to listen to now! =D BTW ---> "Seriously, vote for this pic http://www.lastfm.de/music/Amplifier/+images/31999"; <--- O LOOK MUSE LOL. That being said: no, no vote ): I like when they look more original.

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  • xanderglz wrote:
    19 days ago
    xD that's ok, but calm down, dude. I just called the user "therestwillflow" as a friendly meaning of a porcupine tree fan, since that's the name of one of their songs. Not that I made a comparison or something like that. Also I'd like to stress the second part of your comment a bit, since you're right, Eternity may not be as powerful as any of the other albums or HAL, but that's exactly my point of why I consider this EP good: their tracks are calm, mellow but absolutely not boring. At all. Eternity just shows a different side of Amplifier to us, which I think is a good thing to do anyway =)

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  • thekillingspree wrote:
    19 days ago
    Are you seriously serious? The current pic kicks so much ass, no way I'm gonna vote it down! Just leave it alone, it's one of the best pics I've ever seen from any band!

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  • slave_guard wrote:
    19 days ago
    Seriously, vote for this pic http://www.lastfm.de/music/Amplifier/+images/31999

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  • thekillingspree wrote:
    19 days ago
    Funny that you should mention Porcupine Tree, as I see Amplifier as a proper version of Porcupine Tree. And yeah, I'm sure I'd be flamed for saying such a thing, but fuck it. I like Amplifier a lot and I find Porcupine Tree boring. Also, I feel the tracks on the Eternity EP lack that usual Amplifier power, they lack a bit of "oomph", that's all.

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  • xanderglz wrote:
    20 days ago
    kinda disagree with you, my fellas killingspree and porcupine tree fan (therestwillflow). Eternity is short but hey, these songs, like the rest of them, have a life of their own. The guitar in Area 51 is one of the most beautiful I remember Sel has ever played, though the tracks wouldn't definitely fit the mood in any of the amplifier albums anyway.

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  • thekillingspree wrote:
    21 days ago
    I definitely agree with that, Powerslide14! Some awesome tracks in there!

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  • Powerslide14 wrote:
    21 days ago
    The Astronaut Dismantles HAL is such a great EP.

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  • Jonzo67 wrote:
    23 days ago
    Because Amplifier are so MEGA

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  • nothijngrad wrote:
    23 days ago
    'Mega rock'... wtf is that?! Great band though, I look forward to hearing the new stuff.

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  • therestwillflow wrote:
    23 days ago
    me too. It's a nice look at early Amplifier but I wouldn't say it's amazing or anything.

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  • thekillingspree wrote:
    25 days ago
    Eternity is the Amplifier release I enjoy the least :|

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