Dancing With Intensity

One of a couple different pieces of album art - click to download it for free

 

Hello all. As you may or may not have noticed it has been a massively long time since I’ve posted. It is %100 my fault, but I wanted to do something a bit special for this post. I have decided to do an interview along with the review this time. The album I decided to talk about is the one I said I might at the end of the last review. The band is called “Dancing With Paris” from Toronto. Paris, referring to the name of a stripper and not the city… if you were wondering. The EP is called “There’s Something In The Water” which is a short, 7 track, 19 minute disc. This EP was released %100 digital, without pressing even 1 copy. Which is not completely unheard of, but different for sure. Unlike usual, I’m going to jump right into the album including some quotes from the interview and I will include the interview in full at the end.

The first track is a short intro called “Sand Castles” which is an ambient creepy bit coming to an end at 42 seconds. This track is purely a lead in to the best and most powerful song on the EP called “Bled Dry.” The song starts out extremely powerful and has a bit of a math influenced rhythm, dropping a beat through the first phrase and adding one in the second (or something to that effect). Right off the bat you can hear their main vibe of the record which is the big powerful low end of the 8 string guitar. “The 8 string 7 string 5 string combo was a new edition to the writing process when we wrote this EP. When we did the early demos, that was a 7 string 6 string 4 string combo,”  says James Manning from DWP. The song goes from this powerful vibe right into the strait up pop/hardcore groove with catchy vocals. Those that know me know I’m not a fan of these sections in most music or ever. That is true on this record as well. It’s not something I can be down with. But at the same time they don’t abuse like most hardcore bands. They have it in there to be more relatable, more accessible to the average music listener. So I have no issue at all with this vibe and influence being brought into the mix. My issue with these sections is that the melody that is used in almost every song, is the same broken melody that has been used at nauseam since bands like Alexisonfire came on the scene. In this song the pop-hardcore vibe doesn’t last long though, as they go into one of the my favourite breakdowns probably ever. It’s pretty basic but it is just so crazy and intense. The 16th note breakdown that comes in at about 55 seconds, really kicks your head off your shoudlers, and is pretty random as it separates the two structured, more pop influenced sections. James had this to say about the breakdown, “Bled dry breakdown is absolutely rediculous. I don’t even know what to say about it, hence why there were no vocals thrown in there. it stands out on it’s own and is absolutely brutal.”  The song finishes with a great “b” chorus with more open heavy guitars and growl under the singing. Overall, a great track.

Moving on to the middle section of the EP, we come to the 3rd track called “Orange Country.” This song has a bit of a weird electronic vibe at the beginning under the low heavy 8 string guitar. In a lot of ways I find this to be the weakest track on the album as they don’t really leave the slow quarter note triplet vibe the entire song save for the slow drawn out breakdown which is definitely pretty heavy. They make up for it though, with a short track called “(Boardwalk)”. This track is such an excellent, ambient, instrumental break from the rest of the album which moves seamlessly into the 5th track called “Hardwalk (Of Champions).” The transition is so seamless that at first listen you don’t even know the vibe has changed until they add the big bend on the 8 string. The section at the beginning of this track is one of my favourites on the album, as it has great play between the two guitars, especially in the panning. The riff has a bit of a cool rhythmical idea and the two guitars are thrown back and forth, front and back and all around. When that is used creatively with the way the riff is, it makes for a great section. The rest of the track has the token vibe of the album, with the heavy guitars and catchy vocals. 

Live - click it for their myspace

The album ends with a couple of cool tracks. Track 6 is “Titanic” with starts with a pure intense vocal bit “This is a sinking ship!” Which leaves me to say to myself… “hmmm sounds about right”. The main riff of the song is pretty basic but has a great little riff in the back which changes to a great ambient riff in the background as the song progresses. One thing I came to notice in the band is that whenever the low end power part of any song is starting to become a bit tiresome I can usually hear the cool ambient riff in the background. That is no different in this song. This makes the strait breakdowns, when the ambience is dropped out, much more powerful. The last track is the title track of the album and other than “Bled Dry” is probably the strongest song on the EP. It’s the longest song, at just over 4 minutes and really incorporates all the ideas they were trying to get across on the EP. Therefore, my complaints about this song are the same as on the rest of the record. The pop parts are a bit of a “been there done that” vibe, and the heavy guitars abuse that quarter not triplet that is so hard for any metal based band to stay away from. Especially from 3 mins till the end that vibe is a bit tiresome.

Let’s talk about the musicians shall we! Nothing individually really blew me away. The vocals have great intensity in both the high scream and the heavy growl. His singing, although is not my style, gets the job done. But, I would need to see them live (which I plan on doing) to know the true quality of his singing voice. The guitars really don’t do anything complicated on the record. But they do throw some really cool rhythms at you and there are a couple of fancy riffs in there that show some mastering of the instrument. That being said, the vibe and the overall musical philosophy doesn’t really lend itself well to the crazy solo’s anyway. Although, I would still like to hear the odd section with some diddly, but that might just be me. The bass is hard to comment on because there is so much low end to begin with and he is almost always just shadowing the 8 string. This is about all you could do in this band I’m sure. The drums are also hard to comment on because it’s such a breakdown driven band he doesn’t really have the opportunity to do a lot. But what he does is tight and he’s got some cool transition fills in there. In the future it would be cool to see the drums take a bit more of a polyrhymical approach like he does a bit on the snare in “(Boardwalk)”. 

Production on this record really is second to none. DWP used the same guy that is currently working on our record, Shawn Lefebvre. He didn’t do anything overly experimental with the production, but it sounds absolutely massive! You can hold this record up to pretty much anyone in the business and the production will compare. This opinion is incredibly biased though, so I will not say anything else. I do want to talk about the album art for a bit. Seeing as it’s all digital they made a cover for every song in Itunes. Which I think is just incredibly cool! The art is amazing and you should check out what James said about it in the interview. 

Overall, I really enjoy the EP. It’s not the most unique album out there but it puts almost every hardcore band out there to shame. The issues I have with it I already stated so I won’t talk about it again. In the future I would like to see DWP mess around with their melodies a bit more in the choruses. The band that does the catchy melody the best is Isis. If they incorporated the kind of vocal vibes on the “Wavering Radiant” album for example, they could bring their catchy sections to a whole new level. I feel they are moving well towards the vibe I’d like to see them take in their heavy sections as they incorporate some cool math type parts and they already listen to Meshuggah. So if they take any lessons away from them at all I will be pleased. So, ya decent record especially for their first release. I strongly recommend going to get it. IT’S FREE, and clicking the first picture at the top takes you right to the download link. You are literally 2 clicks away and 3 minutes away from getting the record. So there is no excuse with this one. 

 

Promo - click it for their myspace

 

 

Anyway, Thats it for the review but the interview is really cool and I couldn’t have been more happy with the answers. So here it is. Sorry for the cliche ones but they have to be asked and I got them out of the way first.

1. How/Who came up with the band name? Any Good stories behind it? Any significance? 

James: The dancing with Paris name came from a story about Terrence and me and our buddy dan at a strip club. There was this gorgeous stripper named Paris and Terrence fell in love LOL. Well not really, but he had to have a lap dance from her. (He) couldn’t get her so we went back another night. (He) still didn’t get her because she was fighting with I guess her boyfriend? Anyways, one night a few weeks later we decided to go back, he was gonna get this fuckin lap-dance! We get there walk out and the strip club had been turned into a furniture store. Terrence never got the lap dance so Dancing With Paris was born as a name out of that story.

2. I can hear the Meshuggah influence, but what other artists have shaped the musical philosophy and writing of Dancing With Paris?

James: This EP embodies every tiny influence we have in it. I think it draws on every artist. Obviously Meshuggah, but also Holly Springs, A Day To Remember Vanna, Fall Out Boy, Straight Reads The Line, classic Alexisonfire, Dredg, Deftones, Refused, Glassjaw you can probably find spice girls and lady gaga in there jk. But seriously there’s a lot more, that’s just the obvious.

3. You guys obviously abuse that 8 string vibe in the heavier sections. Do both guitarists use it? What make/model(s) are you guys rockin? Was that a tool you guys used when the band was formed? If not, was it a conscious decision as a band to go to that vibe? or did one of the guitar players just see a deal at Steve’s one day one a sick 8 string?

James: The 8 string 7 string 5 string combo was a new edition to the writing process when we wrote this EP. When we did the early demos that was a 7 string 6 string 4 string combo. Wilson is always at the bottom of more strings tune down. He plays an 8 string Ibanez, I can’t remember the model. Brad plays a 7 string Ibanez and Frieday plays a 5 string Ernie ball bass man I believe. I forget that kinda stuff all the time. Either way Wilson’s 8 is tuned to F# and there is a rumour of his interest in a 9 string LOL.

4. You guys are on Twitter, which is obviously becoming insanely popular. Have you found that it’s helps with any aspects of growing your band and your brand in general?

James: Twitter is a funny thing. I have my own, I use the band’s myspace, and I love facebook. But with Twitter if one person is always doing it you don’t need to. in our case Wilson does most of it. from what I’ve seen though, it has it’s many uses. Quick updates, quick news, and alot of ppl use Twitter. i use it for other bands that I like and it gives me all the updates i need. I know Twitter helps spread the word.

5. We’ve seen the benefits of doing the free download as we had over 100 downloads of the torrent as soon as we put it up, almost surpassing all of our Itunes sales. You guys released the “There’s Something In The Water EP” completely digital and completely free right off of the bat. What benefits have you guys seen from that? What other measures have you guys taken as a band to stay financially viable?  

James: Free downloading is amazing. I’m a broke motherfucker so I can admit I download. Although if I had money I would still buy CD’s because I love them. I love opening a fresh cd and listening to music through my technique stereo at home. It’s old but the sound quality is awesome. So what? Well here’s the advantage. ppl don’t know us? Well get aquanted and don’t pay a cent. We don’t make money on CDs but who does anymore. If ppl download our EP love it come out to a show party and buy merch. We still make money. and they got free music to love. Here’s why. People now have the option to pick what they listen to. You have two bands you’ve heard are awesome, one album is free and the other one you have to pay for. You haven’t got money and u have never heard there music. You’re gonna download that freebe. We can be that freebe. Who’s gonna spend money on a band they’ve never heard before? I always download then buy. it’s like an HMV listening booth in ur home. But also we may eventually press and sell hard copies for the peeps that want them. There are ppl who have asked me when were gonna do that.

6. You guys are all from Toronto. What is it like trying to break into the incredibly tough Canadian music industry in the most crowded market? 

James: Being from toronto is awesome, but there are problems. Too much going on. Always big bands coming through and awesome shows going on like Blink and Fall Out Boy just played here. The problem with that is bands coming up in a city like this do shows and can’t draw or struggle to draw new ppl because we have the bands that everyone wants to see. So ppl go to that instead or ppl go to clubs or anything. There’s just so much going on. When you go outside of Toronto, smaller towns don’t have that, but the bands like ours come to those small towns and everyone goes to the shows cause that is the main thing going on in that small town. On top of all that there is an endless variety of bands of various genres trying to make it in this vast city. Especially hardcore, or metal styles of music, it’s really hard.

7. Being from Guelph I have found that the city and the music coming from here has influenced my writing and my musical philosophy in general. What (if any) influence has the Toronto music scene had on Dancing With Paris?

James: Now on the bright side, Toronto has alot of interesting characters. I grew up in scarborough which is the absolute east side of Toronto. I’ve met alot of interesting people which lyrically I crafted those ppl/themes into our songs on the EP. It’s such a big place and you can always find something to do whether it’s a bush party or a house party, I still tend to wind up swigging 40’s somewhere. Also, though I think growing up here shapes who you are. If it wasn’t for this place I wouldn’t be who I am doing what I am doing now. Where you grow up is a part of you always and forever will influence ur life. Of course I can’t speak for the whole band because two members live in aurora and one moved here from Milton. Dunno if Toronto affects them.

8. I LOVE the album art. It’s one of my favourite attributes of the EP. Who did the art? Who came up with the concept? and who’s Idea was it to do the dual cover for itunes?

James: The album art was done by Wilson. He has a line out called Willi-Lines which he does all online from their website. He painted everything then Piers our manager photoshoped it all together to make it what you see when you download it and throw it onto your iPod touch or iPhone or whatever media device it’ll show up on. I love it it’s awesome. the idea to have different art was Wilson and Piers I think.

9. You guys worked with Shawn Lefebvre on this record. Where did you record with him? Describe your experience working with him and how much (if any) influence he had on the tracks, other than the mix of course. 

James: Shawn Lefebvre! Awesome to work with. Knew how to handle all of us. Did way more then just mix, record, master. As soon as we finished writing Shawn was in there with us doing pre-production, re-structuring the songs to make them flow better making them tighter. Once that was done we headed out to Drive Studios in woodbridge to record drum tracks. We spent the whole day there. The rest of the EP was done at Shawn’s studio in the west end of Toronto. Shawn was also fully emersed in production as well. He edited all my lyrics to make sure they made sense and threw in some lines as well. Over all experience was absolutely awesome. Definitely wanna work with him again in the future and I recommend him to anyone who’s serious.

10. DUDES! What it is with that RIDICULOUS breakdown in “Bled Dry”? So simple but so crazy!

James: Bled dry breakdown is absolutely rediculous. I don’t even know what to say about it hence why there were no vocals thrown in there. it stands out on it’s own and is absolutely brutal.

So that’s it for the interview. I’d like to thank James and the band as a whole for agreeing to do the interview. It’s definitely something I’m going to try more often. Thanks again guys! 

That’s it for me! Until next time… keep saying no to kitsch!

Hill Of Yage

This Week I’ve been listening to: The Doors (thanks a lot sweetheart) 

This Week I’ve been watching: British Office and Peep Show (lovin the BBC)

The 50 List..

Alright so my brother just posted a list of his 50 most important books and one of my fathers has asked me a few times for a list of 50 album recommendations for him. So I thought this would be a good time to do that and I figured I might as well post it here so people can see what I’m into. There are a couple of things I’d like to point out first.

Reservation The First… I mostly just threw this list together. I’m sure a couple of albums slipped my mind as it was extremely hard to narrow it down to 50. 

Reservation the second… Although I took many things into account when picking albums (influence, longevity, musicianship etc) there is obviously a large amount of personal bias and personal influence that also went into picking this list.

Reservation the third… I am still very young and obviously have not listened to nearly as much music as I should have or will in the future. So this list is based on what I have listened to enough to get a handle on in my life.

Reservation the fourth… I know people will disagree, if anyone even bothers to read this. Please comment and let me know how stupid I am for picking a certain album or leaving one off.

Reservation the 5th.. There is no real order to these picks except that the first on the list is clearly #1!

Here goes….

Kind Of Blue – Miles Davis

Sketches Of Spain – Miles Davis

Mirrored – Battles

Pet Sounds – The Beach boys

Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band – The Beatles

The White Album – The Beatles

Alaska – Between The Buried And Me

Colors – Between The Buried And Me

The Times They Are A-Changin’ – Bob Dylan

Highway 61 Revisited – Bob Dylan

Movies For The Blind – Cage

Salvation – Cult Of Luna

Saturday Night Wrist – Deftones

Calculating Infinity – The Dillinger Escape Plan

Morrison Hotel – The Doors

All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone – Explosions In The Sky

Celestial – Isis

Axis: Bold As Love – The Jimi Hendrix Experience

In The Court Of The Crimson King – King Crimson

Arrangements For Fulminating Vective – Lye By Mistake

Avalanche – Matthew Good

The Audio Of Being – Matthew Good Band

Nothing – Meshuggah 

Hymn To The Immortal Wind – Mono

One More Step And You Die – Mono

Harvest Moon – Neil Young

Dark Side Of The Moon – Pink Floyd

Ummagumma – Pink Floyd

The Wall – Pink Floyd

Wish You Were Here – Pink Floyd

Evil Empire – Rage Against The Machine

Rage Against The Machine – Rage Against The Machine

Chaos AD – Sepultura

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, And Time – Simon & Garfunkel

God Hates Us All – Slayer

Bass Extremes, Vol. 2 – Steve Bailey & Victor Wooten

Couldn’t Stand The Weather – Stevie Ray Vaughan 

Texas Flood – Stevie Ray Vaughan

Lateralus – Tool

The Unforgettable Fire – U2

A Show Of Hands – Victor Wooten

Exodus – Bob Marley & The Wailers

Extraction – Dennis Chambers, Greg Howe, and Victor Wooten

Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs – Derek And The Dominoes

Word Of Mouth – Jaco Pastorius

Impressions – John Coltrane

A Love Supreme – John Coltrane

Road Apples – The Tragically Hip

Led Zeppelin II – Led Zeppelin 

Portable Immortal – Immortal Technique

Indie-pop that’s not so indie… or pop for that matter.

* DISCLAIMER – None of what I write is affiliated in ANY WAY with theyageletters or any other member of said band. I write purely for my creative output, a constructive way to get rid of my boredom, because I love music, and because I love writing. None of what I write has anything to do with anyone’s personality. If you are in a band that I talk about or are affiliated with one, and somehow take offense to what I write than I feel sorry for you. I rarely get more than 30 views a day. So if you seriously get upset and pissed off about a dude sitting in his room writing in a blog talking about your band…. please grow up. If you take the time to actually read the reviews you will see that I honestly make an attempt to be unbiased and I talk about the music only. If you disagree or have issue with my writing style I encourage you to leave a comment or talk to ME… no one else has ANYTHING to do with this blog in any way. A new friend of mine put it perfectly… This blog is like masturbation for me. Talking about music is an urge. It may piss some people off. I knew that going in and I’m prepared for pissed off comments. My band mates do not deserve the same as they have nothing to do with my writing. I write “Hill of Yage” at the end because that’s how I tag everything. If you sincerely want to be a musician or be in the music business there are going to be people giving you, or an artist you represent, bad reviews. If you aren’t prepared for that…. GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE INDUSTRY! This next one won’t piss anyone off… 

Promo shot - click it for their myspace

 

So I’m going to do a bit of shameless self promotion at this point before I talk about the album. We spent the last week at “The Pocket Studios” in Toronto recording our second release. The studio is owned by Mike Turner who, as you may recall, played guitar for Our Lady Peace on their first four albums. If you don’t remember which the first four are… they’re the ones that aren’t brutal. Before meeting Mike I assumed he was a bad ass dude, and after meeting him we have confirmed that yes, he is a bad ass dude! So many cool stories to tell, and such a cool down to earth guy. I don’t want to gush and go on and on so all I will say is that I used the guitar for this album that he used on Clumsy… ‘67 Les Paul… enough said. Our engineer was also bad ass. We were/are working with Shawn “Ninja” Lefebvre, who is a fellow graduate of the Music Industry Arts program. This dude definitely knows what he is doing when it comes to engineering and getting around a protools session. I was trying to do some editing for him on the go but could not keep up. Although I was using a small laptop that recently had a rockstar energy drink spilled on the keyboard. No excuses though, I need to get better and faster. Long story short, the album is going to sound incredible and is completely different from Hieroglyphics. By the way there is now a torrent of that album available (www.mininova.org/tor/2773773) so go steal it!

So it’s been a while since I’ve posted a review. Although the traffic on the site has been fierce. Traffic may be a nice word to use though, when it could be described as backlash in response to the “Odium” review and the “Baptized In Blood” review. Lots of good threats and “what the fuck do you know?” type comments. The comments and my responses to them are worth a read as they are pretty entertaining. My favourite is a guy who took acceptation to my comments about the singer from Odium’s voice saying that it’s a lot better than the vocals in our band. Which is hilarious considering the band I am in is %100 instrumental. Anyway, I’m going to talk about a band whom none of those people listen to, so maybe I will get some different comments. The band is “The Appleseed Cast” who are becoming quite the veterans of the indie rock scene. They are represented by a couple of different  labels, but the ones closest to home are “The Militia Group” and “Vagrant”. If the latter sounds familiar it’s because it’s a pretty huge label with a bunch of big names on it. They have a very large range of genres as well which is nice to see. Their artists range from bands like Alexisonfire, The Bled, Alkaline Trio, Protest The Hero, Moneen, Autumn To Ashes, Thrice, and Senses Fail, to a more mellow side with artists like, Dashboard Confessional, City and Colour,  Placebo, Olivia Broadfield and too many more to name. They come from the mid-west and are into their second decade as a band. Although they’ve released only six albums their style and influence range greatly through the six albums. 

This is a band that I have been exposed to just a very little bit as a member my band is into them and I have their entire catalogue on my itunes, save for their first album. That being said I must say that I am not a huge fan of their early works. I have not listened to their first album but the three that follow that all don’t do much for me. It’s just too much of a pop and emo (that word just seems so dirty now) vibe throughout. The vocals are so indie and the music is pure pop based. That being said, if you like catchy music that will play over and over in your head for days, the early catalogue is worth checking out, especially “Two Conversations” released in 2003. But like any decent band they have grown and incorporated new and different influences. By the time they ended their three year break in 2006 with the “Peregrin” album you could notice a significant change in all aspects of their music.  

 

Album Art

 

 

The album I’m going to talk about is called “Sagarmatha” and has been playing pretty constantly in my itunes since I was aware of it’s release and grabbed a torrent file. Itunes says I’ve listened to it 7 times! which is about 5 more already than the average play count on all the other albums. So why is this album different from the rest? Well it’s obvious right off the bat with the first song called “As The Little Things Go” which establishes the main style of the album immediately. A style which I would simply call dreamy. The guitars in this song play off of each other so well. Both main parts are so different yet work perfectly, reminiscent of bands like Explosions In The Sky. This is also a theme throughout the record. The difference in the percussion is also shown clearly right off the bat with varying intensities and the willingness to slowly tear the beat down and build it back up again utilizing the full kit right down to the tambourine. I also love how a band that is supposedly “Indie” or “Pop” doesn’t even have the vocals come in until almost 7 minutes of an 8:15 song. This trend continues right through to the second track called “A bright light” which is another lengthy song at 7:05. This one has a bit more of a throwback to their older stuff at the beginning with the upbeat drums with shaker overtop along with catchy vocals. But this brings me to the biggest difference on this album, which is the way the vocals are mixed. Instead of being in your face and at the very front of everything they are pushed to the back, drenched in reverb, doubled, tripled, and layered with backing vocals that are equally drenched in reverb. This song has such a great dreamy riff at about four minutes in with a really catchy bass and drum groove layered with some pad, e-bow, and the delayed guitar (which they admittedly abuse). When the bass and drums drop out at the end you are left with a really cool, trance-inducing fade, which continues right onto the next song called “The Road West”. This song is about as ambient as I’ve ever heard this band with a very minimalist beginning until the song kicks at about 2.5 minutes. Epic is a word I would seldom, if ever, attach to this band’s music but this song is pretty close to that as they really build up and tear down the main riff incorporating different layers and textures including a great synth vibe that starts at about four minutes into the eight minute track. The obvious attempt by the band to be more instrumental is one that I obviously enjoy and is a direction I’m glad to see them take. The first three songs are a combined 23.5 minutes with about 3 or 4 minutes of vocals including the third track which is completely instrumental. 

To me the album has three clear sections. A long three song chunk at the beginning which takes you into a dream followed by quick middle section including the fourth track, “The Summer Before” which has the catchy vocal melodies the band is known for. This song has a much more strait up vibe with a normal progression on the guitar and more of a verse and then chorus progression. It would be a great choice for a single, but I wish they would continue the song for a bit longer as they really only do the one verse and one chorus. This is followed by a quick two minute song which brings back some of the acoustic guitar vibe they have used to great effect in the past. This is song is called “One Reminder, An Empty Room” and is another one that I would have liked to see go on for another five or six minutes. “Raise The Sails” is about as intense as the band gets. There are even some sections with some drive on the guitar! The songs on the album feed into each other really well as they always seem to carry vibes over. For example this track has a great powerful outro with a drum based groove to end and then has “Like A Locus” picking up with the drum driven groove right where it left off. This quick four minute song is a great example of how the band incorporates electronics into their music with great effect and is one of my favourites on the album. 

 

Live - 2006

The third and final section of the album starts with the second-to-last track “South Col”. This song is the most rocking out on the album, and is the only song to push the tempo. But the dreamy vibe is not lost. The vocal layer is used to perfection. The main vocal has all the presence you need to make them feel like they are in the same room but with enough reverb and space added to keep the ambient vibe that is all over the album. It also makes it easier to transition to the great back beat middle section. This song, in general, probably has the best transitions of any song I can think of in their catalogue. Especially at the end when they take a piano solo and pile a bunch of layers all at ounce and then remove them effortlessly to go right back to the piano vibe. We end off the record with a funky little song called “An Army Of Fireflies”. This song is really the only song where the drummer shows his skills with a beat at the beginning which is just plain sick. The beat is grown perfectly throughout the 4.5 minute song which is one long crescendo and perfect way to end the album. 

Overall the album is great and I see myself listening to it many times in the future. They have clearly taken the good ideas they have established in their early work and taken their music to a whole new level. That being said if you’re looking for something busy or an album to rock out to, this is not an album for you. They never really leave their dreamy trance like vibe. Individually it’s hard to comment because the music in general is pretty minimalist. But if I had to comment I would say the musicianship is lacking as the guitar players lean on their delay pedals a lot and the bass player doesn’t stray too far from the root notes. The vocals were great as the simple melodies are catchy and sit just overtop of everything like a cloud. The drums also don’t stray too far from the simple pop beats. That, coupled with the simple bass, minimalist guitars, and basic melodies adds up to a lot of space. This is obviously the goal, but being the metal head I am I can’t help but think to myself “look at all those wasted 16th and 32nd notes that could be filled with…” I guess that’s why I’m not in a band like this. The production is about what you would expect. It’s simple and not fancy. The drums sound like indie drums with an emphasis on the bottom of the snare, not so much the attack of the stick, and a warm tone overall. The bass and vocals are the highlight of the production as the bass is just so warm and round and as I mentioned earlier I love how the vocals are more in the back and dreamy.

Well, that’s all I have to say about that album. If you dig simple, mellow, ambient, yet catchy music I strongly recommend grabbing a copy. They sell them on their myspace for the regular indie prices. They also have a vinyl version for sale with a bonus track. You could also just grab a torrent like me and you won’t be disappointed  either way. They don’t have any shows up accept a festival appearance in Kansas so we’ll all have to wait to check them out. As for the next review… I’m not sure where I will turn. Our engineer just produced a metal band with some cool attributes that I haven’t really had a chance to check out yet. Maybe that’s what I’ll do.

Until next time… keep spitting in the face of everything that is kitsch!

Hill of Yage

This week I’ve been listening to: New Beneath The Massacre album… same old, same old for them. But such crazy intense music with unreal guitar work. 

 

 

 

 

This week I’ve been watching: All of Family Guy season 7! so funny… Every thing’s better with a bag of weed!

This week I’ve been reading: Not much… some pretty fucked up Adbuster’s articles in studio.

Heaviness On A Whole New Level

 

Album Art - click it for their myspace

Before I jump into this album I would like to talk a little bit about a couple of things. First is a discussion I had with a reader who took a bit of an exception to the Baptized in Blood, “Gutterbound” review, saying I should take it easy on these guys who are working hard and love what they are doing among other things. I’d like everyone who reads this to keep in mind none of what I say is meant as a personal attack on anyone. I am interested in talking about the music only. If I say negative things about the music of some great guys, than that’s the way it happens. The Yage Letters have our good reviews and bad, of course. I would never take any bad review personally. If anything it gives me more drive to be a better musician, get better at my craft, and work harder over all. The discussion is worth a read but for some reason won’t show up on the article unless you click on the article title and look at it individually. But please do and comment back what you think. 

Some of you may remember that at the end of the aforementioned Gutterbound review I said I wasn’t going to talk about metal for a while. But when I noticed that one of the most curious metal bands around is about to release a new album I changed my mind. This band is called “Job For A Cowboy” and make no mistake about it, they are about as intriguingly heavy as it gets. They’ve been a pretty big name in metal since their first major release called “Doom” and since have released a bit of a more polished effort in 2007 called “Genesis”.  They are on an the american indie label, “Metal Blade.” This is a label I had heard of before because of a couple massive names in death metal, “Cannibal Corpse” and “Cradle Of Filth”. The latter has since moved on from the label. But in checking out their artist list I have come to realize just how big this label is. They are home to over 75 metal acts, which to me seems like way too many. But they do have some big names like the previously mentioned Cannibal Corpse as well as, Behemoth, Soilent Green, The Black Dahlia Murder, Gwar, Six Feet Under, As I Lay Dying, and Cattle Decapitation. The last band in that list I have never heard of. I simply put them in there because that could be the worst band name I have ever heard. They also have a band on the label called “Goatwhore”. What the fuck? So some big names and some hilariously heavy bands on the label, making it a suitable home for Job For a Cowboy.

This is a band I remember trying to get into in the summer of 2007 when I was in “training” for a job at the notorious Better Beef slaughter house. Which is an ironic thing to talk about after seeing “Cattle Decapitation” on that artist list. Anyway, a dude at the same training session heard me listening to Between The Buried and Me and had suggested Job For A Cowboy. So naturally I looked them up. I listened to a couple of tracks and quickly turned it off, in fear of having my soul torn apart by the madness or that a portal to hell would be opened and I would be sucked into an eternity of torture and suffering. In all seriousness it was just too overtop for me at the time. I have since given them a second chance on recommendation from a friend in London who shall remain nameless in case he doesn’t want his name dropped on the interweb. So I downloaded the two albums they had out at the time and was actually very impressed with “Doom” because of it’s crazy fast blast beats, unique vocals, and some definite silly moments. Genesis was a bit too much of the same old same old as far as their style was concerned so I was very excited to hear their new album.

 

Live - click it for their official site

So lets talk about the music shall we. The opening track is suitably named “Unfurling A Darkened Gospel.” As you might guess it is %100 pummeling right off the bat. A quick drum fill and it’s right into the madness that is Job For A Cowboy. This song like some of the rest of the record and a lot of their old stuff has some of the fastest blast beats I’ve ever heard and enormously heavy low end vocals. This track also has a couple of things they didn’t do a whole lot of on the other records. One is the creative layering of the vocals. Jonny Davy combines his dark deep and demon summing low vocals with either Brent rigg’s (bass) vocals, or an overdub of his own to create a wall of heaviness. There is also a pretty crazy solo in the middle of this track that shouldn’t go without mentioning. The second track has one of the most ridiculous transitions I’ve ever heard at about 1:07 into the song. The song is “Summon The Hounds” (which automatically makes me thinking of Mr. Burns) and which starts as usual with the fast 8th note on the hats and snare on every quarter with lightning fast double kick. The aforementioned transition comes out of this into an equally insane blast beat. The two parts themselves are nothing overly special. But you hear the transition coming and assume it’s going to the be average triplet over 8th note drum fill but quickly turns into a drum clinic that lasts almost 20 seconds and is sure to make your pants wet.

Constitutional Masturbation is your classic Job For Cowboy, but the one recurring theme has an incredible blast beat rhythm. The snare is the classic 16th note triplet but on the ride he plays an incredible math progression that I can’t quite figure out with the accents played beautifully over the math guitar riff. This is something he actually does a couple of times on the record and of course they throw the slow punishing riff at you at the end. The 4th track is called “Regurgitated Disinformation” which is pretty much the same title as the previous track in meaning. The track uses some good high screams which I love about this band but doesn’t have much to write home about accept it ends with some of the heaviest vocals I have ever heard. At this point in the record it came clear to me why i initially couldn’t get into this band and it’s an issue I have with a lot of these bands. Like Beneath The Massacre for example. At first glance and listening from a far it’s pretty much impossible to distinguish one song from the next. But let me assure you, if you take the time to get into the music, most songs have their own unique attributes, but the vibe never changes. I will talk more about this later.

You have probably noticed just as I have, how cliche the names of these songs are. The 5th track is no different and is called “March To Enslavement” and actually has a pretty cool first 45 seconds with an interesting drum progression. It is also the longest song on the record at 6 minutes, where as the rest are around the average single length. This song also incorporates the most layering of vocals. I wonder if the increased use of this was a production call by someone or a conscious decision by the band during the writing process. The vocals on this track are just so good. There is a section at about 4 minutes where the scream sounds almost like a vomit at the beginning. So awesome and dirty! He follows a couple of those with a massively long vocal bit that goes from his extreme high screech all the way down to his lowest of the low growl, reminiscent of Tommy Rogers from Between The Buried and Me who does that frequently. Although Rogers does everything that is possible with the human voice. 

Like most bands that do the average 10 to 13 songs of 3 to 5 minute length, (especially if they do the average one album every one or two years) the middle section of the record tends to be filler. This band is no different. Tracks 6 through 8 seem to be songs they just threw on to make the record the appropriate full length size. That being said every song on this record is a drum clinic including these ones. This is especially true on the 8th track, “Psychological Immortality” where it is pure ridiculous speed the whole song. Note to all the hardcore bands around these days: Don’t call yourself hyper-speed, thrash, speed metal, or whatever, until you hear this song or this band in general. 

The album finishes fairly strong. Track nine is appropriately titled “To Detonate And Exterminate” and it does both often. I dig the fact that they change a lot in this song and never dwell on the same riff for too long. This includes the last change to a great doom part that reminds one of everything that is deep, dark, or black. This section also has these pinch harmonics in the background that last a good 10 seconds and those who know me know that I love a good pinch! The album finishes with the title track. This is definitely the most complete song on the record and incorporates more ideas and influences than any other song in their catalogue. It is even, dare I say, ambient at times! It’s also the only song where the drummer isn’t constantly crazy. Although he is still impressive. This song also shows the power of the vocals in this band more than any song on the album. It truly is a stand out as the band grows the song like a post band almost. 

 

Live - click it for link to mayhemfest

Normally at this point I’d talk about lyrics. But to be honest the lyrics are completely meaningless in this band. Just think of the vocals like another percussion instrument like most metal bands and you’ll do fine. So let’s move on to the individual musicians. The two guitarists are Al Glassman and Bobby Thompson. The type of music and the way they write really makes it impossible to distinguish which one is the lead or rhythm. They are clearly sick players and have considerable control of their instrument. My beef is that the riff writing is pretty “been there, done that” type progressions. They also never really solo save for the first song. They are pretty one dimensional on the record, but that being said they are better at this one dimension than I ever will be at any. Plus if you can keep up with these tempos and with this drummer you must be doing something right. The bass is not really worth mentioning other than the fact that I can actually hear it, which is more than most bands in the genre can say. I’ve talked about the vocals quite a bit already so all I will say is that no band I’ve heard comes close to this level of punishment from the vocals. It’s what bands like Lamb Of God wish they could sound like. I don’t know enough about the band to know exactly which parts are Jonny’s and which are Bobby’s. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jonny just does them all on the record and Bobby is purely live. If that is the case, than Jonny has a huge range and shows it. My one and only beef with the vocals is that he doesn’t do that dirty “pig squeal” that you hear so often on the “Doom” album. I don’t need to say anything about the drums either really… but i will. Jon Rice is definitely one of the most insane drummers I’ve ever heard. I would love to see this band live to see if he can do it all in person. Judging by videos on youtube he can. But live in person is a whole different beast. They are playing at Mayhemfest (link in pic above) which has some decent bands playing. But a lot of shitty bands too. So I doubt I’ll go seeing as I’d have to pay stupid amounts of money to have to sit through Mushroomhead among other lame acts.

The production on this record is really second to none. The drums sound about as natural as they can in this genre, which is to say they don’t really sound natural at all. But the kick at least has some life and the snare isn’t that annoying ping with the huge long reverb like so many other engineers abuse. The apparent loudness is top notch which goes without saying. Everything sounds huge, which goes without saying. The only real problem I have with the production choices is the annoying reverse delay that metal bands have been using since the early 80’s. It’s time to lay that effect to rest.

Overall I rather enjoyed the record but it’s not one I would recommend to a lot of people seeing as it’s just so over the top heavy. One massive plus is that there isn’t even one lame cliche breakdown! Thank God. The band in general has kind of painted itself into a corner with this style. They are so heavy and crazy that it’s hard to take a new approach to their music. In order to brach out with different styles and go even slightly less crazy you will instantly have the metal heads who don’t even know what they are listening to with this band, which is ironically most of their fan base, casting them out as sell outs. So they pretty much have to stay in this style which leads most people who don’t like the genre, which is the majority saying, “Every song sounds the same.” This I can completely sympathize with if you aren’t like me and look for little nuances in the blast beats and silly little changes in the music. It’s a catch 22 most metal bands have to deal with. Just look at The Dillinger Escape Plan with their last record. They put in some choruses with a melody and tons of stupid fans who have no idea what Dillinger is even doing labeling it as their worst record. Piss me right off. 

So that’s all I have to say about that. Any ideas for something I can review in later weeks, no matter what the genre, as long as it’s new and independent please just leave a comment.

Until next time… keep waging war on kitsch 

Hill of Yage

This week I’ve been listening to: Eluvium! this band’s music is so gorgeous and powerful it’s hard to describe. I fell asleep to it last night and had the most strange and wonderful dreams. I then woke up in such a weird surreal state. GO LISTEN TO THEM!

This week I’ve been watching: Finished Lost season 5. I can’t even believe what happened this season! so many questions answered… finally. I love not having any clue what’s going to happen in the next episodes. 

This week I’ve been reading: First couple chapters of “Catch 22.” Pretty good so far… too early to tell.

Hydrahead means business… BIG BUSINESS!

Click the pic for their myspace!

I’d like to start off topic and say that I was at the Isis/Pelican show at The Phoenix last week and it was fantastic. It was one of those shows that really inspires you to keep making music and keep pushing to get to their level especially because they are both such a similar genre to us. That’s all I have to say about that.

So, you may recall me mentioning that I was going to talk about the new “Minsk” record. I have decided not to, because it would just be too biased. Almost as biased as my first review about “Hymn to the Immortal Wind.” Let me say though, that it is a great record. It’s called “With Echoes In The Movement Of Stone” and I highly recommend going out to buy that one or getting a free version off the net. You wont be disappointed. Anyway, after deciding not to review Minsk, I spent a while searching various indie label websites for some new albums that seemed interesting. One of which was “Hydrahead” who is home to a lot of great bands like, Jesu, Zozobra, Tusk, Pelican, Mare (who are reuniting for one show in Missassauga  June 20th, which is the same night The Dillinger Escape Plan play in Guelph… I am hoping to go to both) and many more. But the one that caught my attention was the new “Big Business” record. I have everything by this band on my itunes and am fairly familiar with them, but they aren’t a band I listen to regularly. They have a really unique sound but they seemed too strait up for me to really get into them. 

I bet at this point you’re saying, “But Andrew, who is this band and what are they about?” Well!… They are simple, but huge sounding sludge metal or doom-punk (if that’s even a genre). They have a pretty interesting back story. The band was founded by two members, Coady Willis on drums and Jared Warren on everything else. They are almost completely bass driven and so in the early days either performed as a two-piece or with a guest guitar player. The two also were members of the “The Melvins” on the “Senile Animal” album and did a fairly large tour as members of the band. If you are unfamiliar with The Melvins I suggest getting into them. They are a whole different world of music and such a unique sonic experience . Big Business like The Melvins have a distinct silly side to them which I could not love more. Since touring for their second full length, “Here Comes The Waterworks” they have added a permanent third member on guitar to fill the sound out. The lucky guy is “Toshi Kasai” who fits their sound perfectly. With the enormous success of the aforementioned album and touring with Tool for a leg on their last tour, their next album was highly anticipated and was finally released on May 12th of this year.  The album is called “Mind The Drift”.

Right away the album drew me in because of the cool drum intro to the opening track “Found Art.” The drums, although never complicated, sound incredible throughout the record. They sound natural and you can tell it’s a human playing the drums. Which is a refreshing change from the last three albums I reviewed. The pulse of the first song is impossible to ignore and has you tapping your foot and bobbing your head. They don’t stray too much from their style on the first track with the intense low end attack and powerful bass driven riffs. This coupled with the unique vocal style of Jared Warren makes this band sound like no other band I’ve heard. The only vocals that are similar that I know of are that of Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead fame. The songs are usually fairly short and around the normal single length. But none of them are “single” type songs as they really don’t follow much structure. After having your chest kicked in with the pummeling vibe of the first song they go right into one, which is fairly similar, but with some cool attributes. Although I didn’t listen to the older Big Big business a whole lot, I don’t ever recall them using synth or samples very much if ever. The second second track, “Gold and Final” incorporates a cool sample throughout the first bit of the song which is used to perfection to create tension right before the big low end filled down beat before bringing it back at the end as a cool fade out.

The third song may be my favourite on the album. It’s called “Cats, Mice.” The 3/4 vibe throughout creates a great hypnotic feel that is sure to have you swaying with a partner (if there’s one around). The song also showcases Toshi’s guitar a little bit, although the music is always fairly minimalist and none of them really show off. The lyrics are great in this song, especially the main lyric which is, “Cats, Mice, rapped in their own device.” or “Cats, Mice, locked in their tricks tonight, quietly wait in the shadows.” This song also shows a writing technique they use throughout the record and not a whole lot on the other records, which is the use of back up vocals. It sounds simple enough, but they use them to great affect and they add so much to Warren’s vocals.  This is also used with great affect in the fourth song which is the most silly on the record. It has a great punk vibe but with a cool poly-rhythmical guitar at the beginning which has a great old school punk tone as well. This middle section in general is probably the most solid on the record including the title track which immediately follows. This song is the most classic Big Business vibe with the overly-simplified big bass riff with drums building around it. This song has the biggest and most obvious “Chorus” in the song. For being a sludge band this chorus is extremely catchy and has you singing the main line over and over, which I’ll talk about a bit more when i talk about the lyrics as a whole.

The last three songs don’t disappoint either, although they are definitely that classic Big Business vibe. They do however keep you interested with some different additions that you don’t hear on their other songs or records. “Ayes Have It” has a really cool organ part throughout with a bit of a different outro and “Cold Lunch” has a bit more guitar than normal overtop of a bit of a flashy drum intro. The last track called “Theme From Business II” is, in the simplest terms, awesome. The build is great and the samples in the background create an enormous amount of tension right before the drums come in fully at about two minutes in. The build is the longest on the record as the song takes about eight minutes. If you know me, I love the big long build so it’s no wonder I really love this song, especially with the guitar play during the second major build. This song has the most variety in parts and the most cool transitions as it moves from the almost funeral march first build into an almost happy and over all epic last half. The drums are phenomenal on this track and are a great example of how to build up and tear down a song using the drums. There are a lot of bands, some of which I have talked about on this page, that should listen to this track in order to gain this important skill. 

 

Click it for their main website.

 

 

Lets talk about lyrics. The lyrics are just great on the record with lots of weird metaphors and imagery that leaves the meaning and emotional impact up to the interpretation of the listener. The rhythmical style of his vocals is great too and different in most songs while playing off the bass so well. The lyrics of the title track are a good example of everything he does well, and it’s short so I’ll let you read the whole thing. 

You take the east, I’ll take the west
If we end up in the middle then we’ll know
You start sinking, better grab your oars and row

Can’t draw a map with honey
Not a lesson, that’s just good advice
Unexplaining how it happened twice
It happened thrice

If you’re talking you better be walking
And please take the path that you know
You stop thinking, making up the words as you go
As you go

(repeated)

The production on this record is second-to-none. The band went with a familiar face in Phil Ek, who produced their two records preceding this one. Big business has such a unique sound that they rightfully went with someone who knows the sound well. Phil Ek along with whoever did the mix (can’t find that out anywhere on the net. I guess thats a bonus of actually buying the album and having the liner notes) did such a great job with all the tones. Being as bass driven as it is, they made sure the low end was so massive and pummeling that you can’t mistake the tone for anyone else. The only bass tone I’ve come across that’s bigger is a band called “Lightning Bolt” who is insane! The drums sound so natural on this album! This is something I’ve noticed as a trait with most Hydrahead bands. The toms sound so huge and the kick drum sounds like… well… a kick drum with actual musical quality to it. The guitar sounds great too. Although with seemingly nothing above 1K in the mix, save for the pick of the bass, the engineers had a lot of space to work with for the guitars and vocals. The vocals are mixed great too, with tons of layers all the time. 

Musically they all get the job done and have compiled a lot of really great, well-written riffs. But those who know me know that I love a little bit of show off. Especially when there is space to do so. I know they go for a simple vibe and are a groove based band above all. That being said, there are some spots that the guitar or drums could have ripped for a couple of minutes and I would be happy. Toshi shows he really knows his place in the band though, as he mostly just lets the bass and drums build the songs and plays texture around the vocals. Which is what you would expect in this band. 

Overall I really can’t complain about this record in anyway. It’s not my favourite band or type of music. But it’s different and definitely gets the head banging. I recommend a listen to anyone who likes cool music and I will definitely see them if they come around this area. Although they aren’t coming to Canada on this upcoming tour, they are heading to Detroit if anyone want to drive through a ghost-town/state to see some good sludge metal. Anyway, thats all for me for now. 

Until next time… NO MORE KITSCH!

Hill of Yage

This week I’ve been listening to: ”Behold… The Arctopus!” Such a great jazz-metal band from New York. Dude plays a 12 string bass and they have a song called “You Will Be Reincarnated as an Imperial Space Turtle.” What more could you possibly want! Also a quick side not… Blind Gaurdian is right after Big Business in my itunes so I also listened to almost their entire discography and I don’t know whether to love them or laugh at them. I guess that’s their goal though.

This Week I’ve Been Watching: Just Started Lost season 5… judging by the first episode I’m in for a mind-fuck of a season.

This week I’ve been reading: Not doing Dune yet. Just got a book called “Catch-22″ from Luke. Apparently it’s a dark comedy about the Second World War. Can’t wait!

 

London Hardcore = Baptized in Management

 

Promo Shot... click it if you want to see their myspace.

Before I start talking about any music I’d like to tell you all a story about how I came to the decision to review the new Baptized In Blood record. It started a couple of days ago when I was talking to a fellow Yage member who brought up the “Fm96 out of the box poll.” This is basically a little thing the main radio station in London does where they put two bands that have recently released records and put them to a head to head vote on their website. I was shocked  to learn that three days in a row Baptized in Blood had won. If they were up against other london hardcore bands it wouldn’t be shocking, but they beat out Metallica, Nickelback, and Bobnoxious. You have to understand (if you are unfamiliar with this radio station) they are all about the strait up alternative and 90’s style stuff. The listening audience is primarily working class londoners and post-secondary students who think Nickelback is the best Canada has to offer. Even more shocking is the margin of victory between the bands. Baptized won each time with over %90 of the vote. So yesterday when I logged into facebook (which admittedly I do much more than is healthy) Brandon Eedy’s facebook status was at the top of the “news feed.” Brandon Eedy (for those who don’t know) has a little thing in London called “Summer Camp Productions” which has a firm hold on the london music scene (what’s left of it). Baptized in Blood is under his management and admittedly is one of the most popular bands these days in the London and area hardcore scene.  So after reading Eedy’s status which reads “Everyone go vote for Baptized in Blood. fm96.com” I became curious and went to check out the numbers. So I go to the site and vote for “The Dead Weather” who I’ve never heard before and see the results at %99 for Baptized in Blood to %1 for The Dead Weather. Being the cynic I am I immediately assume that either Eedy (or someone in Baptized) has set his quick keys to vote continuously for his band  or someone is sitting with a couple of windows open voting over and over for their self-interest. So Naturally I open four new windows in safari and start voting as fast as I can and as many times as I can for The Dead Weather. Within five minutes I have The Dead Weather in front by %10-%15. Satisfied that I had proven someone in the Baptized camp to be a bit of a tool and FM96’s pole to be pointless in general due to the ability to vote infinitely, I left my computer and went about my other business.  A few minutes later I come back to my computer and, after a bit of inter-webbing (fans of the show 30 rock may get that reference), I went to check the stats of the pole. Wouldn’t you know it, much to my chagrin, Baptized was back up to %92 of the vote! Not wanting to waste anymore time I didn’t vote anymore, but the whole scenario left me a little depressed for a couple of reasons. Having lived in London for four years and seeing the whole music scene basically die before my eyes because of a couple promoters, it depressed me to see the trend continuing. It also depresses me that people are using tools like this FM96 thing, which obviously has no merit if you can swing the entire vote with five minutes of voting, to gain some sort of credibility or standing for their band.  So, having only heard the two songs from their myspace I decided then and there to download their album (god bless torrents) so I could see what, if any, the fuss was about. 

Before I jump right into the record I want to define hardcore a bit. Now this definition is just what I hear from the scene recently because hardcore used to have a much different meaning and “hardcore” bands used to have a much different sound. So basically (despite what hardcore bands themselves will tell you) it is a dumbed down version of speed or grind metal with a definite punk tone to the percussion. That’s a simplified version, but if you really want to know what it sounds like just click one of their pictures to see their myspace and for more samples just click anyone of their “top friends.” At said myspace, Baptized describes themselves as “2 parts Eddie Van Halen, 2 parts gutterthrash, 3 parts southern comfort, and 4 parts hyperspeed, Blend and serve chilled.” Not only is that statement completely ridiculous, I could not disagree with it more. They do try incredibly hard on the record to sound like Eddie Valen with the taps over somewhat fast guitar. But to compare yourself to someone like that especially when you’re no where close is a bit over the top. Who knows what the hell gutterthrash even is. But I think it implies something that is even more dirty than thrash and I don’t even want to start a list of bands that are dirtier and a hell of a lot more “thrash” than them. 3 parts southern comfort? no comment. Oh, and four parts “hyperspeed” is a hilarious statement seeing as they don’t have even one blast beat on the entire record. 

The album is called “Gutterbound” and as you’ve heard already the band is called “Baptized In Blood.” These names piss me off because they are the reason metal gets an ugly stereotype from uneducated people. It just grinds my gears to see this horrible metal stereotype being perpetuated by bands that feel they have a need to be as metal as they possibly can be.  This problem is all over this scene. “Textbook Tragedy,” “Knife Party,” “Burn Us Both,” “Misery Signals,” “Dead and Divine,” just to name a few. 

 

Live

 

 

Okay so I’m going to go into the music now, but I’m not going to go into each individual song like I would normally because it’s just a waste of characters in my WordPress text-box. The album as expected comes out guns-a-blazing with the snare on every quarter note followed by the half-time groove. If you plan on listening to this record get used to this trend which leads to my biggest beef of the record… the percussion. So to not waste time later I’m going to get a bunch of stuff concerning the drums of my chest now. It’s like the drums were pre-programmed in a plug-in where you just set 3 loops over and over and then set how often you want it to fill. The quick punk drums that have been rammed down our throat since god knows when are getting so old. Quick 8th note on the high-hat or crash with the snare every quarter, into the half time crash and snare groove. It used to be I could say “Ya but at least he’s double kicking with the guitar picking!” But now that is just the norm so how can I possibly take anything away from that. But the biggest, most hilarious aspect of the drums on the record is his fills. Granted his fills are quick, but if your going to listen to this band at all do me a favour and count every four bars. Bet all your money that he’s going to fill at the end of that fourth bar with a big two handed crash on the down beat of the next one. It’s boring. 

I also complain a lot about breakdowns. So I will save you a rant and make like Dr. Evil and say “pretty standard really”. But at least they show a little bit of skill with the tapping and such overtop. The tapping annoys me on this record though. It’s like they were trying to prove as hard as they could to show they are influenced by Van Halen. Let be said that I have no issue showing your influences, but there is a difference between that and stealing riffs. I have even bigger beef when they are stolen half-assed. Speaking of stealing “Down and Out”  (original title eh?) is a prime example of a compilation of stolen parts packaged for your generic music purchasing needs. The main breakdown hook: “Down… Down and Out!” is just pure stolen southern metal reminding me of bands like “Throwdown” or other quintessentially generic bands. The middle part is so euro-metal that it hurts. Alexi Laiho style to the bone. All they need is the synth harmonizing with the guitars and they might have been taken to court by Children Of Bodom’s lawyers. The album has a few sections like this which are mostly the better parts.

Baptized in Blood leans on the “guitarmony” in almost every song in every breakdown and bridge. Which when all said and done is a cool and very flashy tool to use. There are unique and musical ways of using this tool and Baptized has a couple sections where they pull it off well. But in most songs especially “Next Stop Hollywood,” it just seems like masturbation. It’s fun to do, but it does nothing for anyone else! In the middle of the album they have a couple of songs with some decent attributes. “Blue Oyster” is the best song on the album and the only song that stands on its own, with some cool grooves and some sections that make you think the album might not be a total loss. “RATTtails and Rainbows”  is worth mentioning because it’s really the only song with a bit of a different intro, but then of course four bars later and another drum fill they proceed to a pretty standard hook: “Are you feeling alright! Are you feeling alright!” Almost the exact same hook as “Down…Down and out!”

The album doesn’t change for the last three songs and curiously the last song is called “Only Time Will Tell”. All you have to do is scroll down to my review below to see where they could have taken that from. Farewell to Freeway is in the same genre and only an hour down the road. I think someone should have caught that. The song itself has the most generic breakdown on the record at about 3 minutes in. If you are familiar with a lot of metal and have listened to a lot of it, listen to this song and the breakdown at the end and try not to laugh. I laughed at loud to myself as soon as I heard it. They then go into a riff at the end which is almost as generic. They play it for almost 2 minutes and then fade out with it. Not a good choice.

I’d like to talk about individual members as well. The lead vocal is pretty dirty. He sounds heavy and obviously fits the genre and the overall vibe. But my issue with him is that the growl is all he does. No singing, no screaming, no yelling, no piercing black metal vocal, and no attempt at any of the above. But he does have the big vocal for the breakdown and makes it sound nice and thick. But just like my beef with the double-kick thing earlier, it’s just expected now. It’s been done so many times that, if you want to be in a genre where people expect you to be heavy, you have to have that vocal. Just like the lame, soft vocal dripping with presence in female contemporary or auto-tune vocals in newer pop/r&b music. It’s just like the genre standard and after a while doesn’t it all just become pop? The guitar players are what holds it all together in the band. They are flashy and play some crazy fast riffs. They obviously have skills! No doubt about it. Personally I’m a fan of the big pinch harmonic and these dudes have some massive pinches on the album. I’m not sure what they use but it sounds like an Ibanez S series or something with the whammy bar used to full affect. I’m not even going to talk about the bass. Why talk about something that doesn’t exist at any point on the record?

The production, as expected, is pretty solid. The guitars sound big. The vocals are dirty and the guitar lead is in your face. But did the engineer not record the bass and then they decided to put out the album without it or something? There are a couple of cool production idea’s, including one at the end of “Next Stop Hollywood”. The drums could have been bigger for my liking though. They seem to be mixed really thin and confined. Especially the snare in the parts (although very few and far between) that are clear of high gain guitar and are bit more mellow, the snare is just naked and awkward. But other than that I have no real problem with the mix and the engineers clearly knew what they were doing. 

Overall we’re talking about an unsigned band’s first full length release. So putting it in that perspective it’s decent and they show great potential as guitar players. But that being said they are in a slippery slope being in the scene and genre they are in. You know that with the thousands of bands that are trying to do something in this genre and with most of them doing basically the exact same thing, the scene won’t last. So props to them for being one of the main bands in London right now despite all other contenders.

It’s the way this type of music is being made and marketed that makes it unattractive to me and non-unique in general. The songs seem pieced together. Like they aren’t complete unless they have a big breakdown and a fast hardcore section, in a certain order, and presented in a certain way visually. Like paint by numbers. Songs should be grown! You should be able to see a song grow like a plant coming out of the dirt in stop-motion. But this genre, including most of this record, is like seeing someone quickly assemble a Lego spaceship set with a bunch of random pieces.

Anyway, I’m done talking about this record and done talking about hardcore forever. I’m not going talk about metal for a while either. I can’t stand to see so many bands and people taking the genre for granted. 

Until next time.. DEATH TO KITSCH!

Hill of Yage

 

This week I’ve been listening to: Lot’s of Bob Dylan. Starting to get into some early 70’s stuff a bit more.  As I write this though, I am listening to Barry White. There is no medicine like Barry White.

This week I’ve been watching: The Jays finish their road trip 0-9! 2 in a row back at home though.

This week I’ve been reading: Haven’t started Dune yet… but have been reading the onion.com religiously and almost pee my pants every time.

Some More Home Town Metal

 

click to hear songs and watch videos!

 

 

My earliest memory of Farewell To Freeway was seeing them play behind the school on the lawn near the bleachers during the terry fox run. It was grade ten for me so it must have been 2001 or 2002 or something like that. It’s funny to compare a Freeway show nowadays to Richie singing a Papa Roach cover from his drums back then. Maybe it’s just nostalgia, but I always remember the sound at those outdoor school shows like battle of the bands and “infrasonic” sounding better than any regular club. Now that I think about it, it’s probably not nostalgia but rather just a slow deterioration of my hearing.  Anyway, the point I’m driving at here is that Farewell has come a long way and have been together an astounding 8 or 9 years, although changing members around a couple of times. They are, for better or worse the most recognizable or “biggest” Guelph band out there right now. Considering all the horrible bands out there this isn’t a bad one to have representing our city, so I’ve always wished them all the best and really like to see them succeed. They are graduates of Year Of The Sun, under which I thought they did their best work with the “In These Wounds” Album. Since then they took a massive step up to “Victory “Records”, home to metal main stays like Between The Buried And Me, Darkest Hour, Silverstein and others. They’ve put out two releases with victory, the first being “Definitions,” which (without going into it too much) I was not a big fan of to say the least. The second release, which I’m going to go into a bit in the coming paragraphs is called “Only Time Will Tell”. 

First of all, let me just say I like it. Before I say anything potentially negative or positive about it, let it be said that I’m a fan. Itunes says I’ve listened to it 5 times so I must be diggin’ it a bit. Especially compared to definitions which I thought was basically strait pop with some  heavy breakdowns in between. Farewell diversified their sound a bit for this record; sometimes for the better and sometimes for the not so much. But at least their putting in some effort to do some cool stuff. which is much more than most bands can say.

The album starts as predicted though, with the fast fist-pumping metal that gets the metal heads and the scene kids into the show all at once. The strait up vibe gets the heading nodding for sure but, being the snob I am, quickly starts to bore me. The album has a ton of sections like this but unlike a lot of bands in this genre they throw something in when I start to get bored. And how do they do it? Maybe it’s even cliche to talk about anymore… but yes! It’s the breakdown! I rag on bands a lot for abusing the breakdown, and I will rag on Farewell for doing it later on, but personally I really like the breakdowns on the record. “No Fate, No End” has, of course, the big breakdown; but it also has the catchiest pop chorus on the record and a cool bridge. But it, like a couple others on the album, give me the same bored vibe I got from definitions. 

 

Live

 

 

The album takes a turn for the much better through the middle section. Even on the second track you can realize the improvement on Adam’s growl. A good growl always helps me to get into it more. The second track ,”The Last Thing I’ll Ever Say” has a couple really cool sections, both catching my ear because of synth. One of my beefs with a lot of Farewell is that when I like Michele’s riffs they are often not heard and when they are heard, it’s when I feel they shouldn’t be at the front of the mix. At most times (this record included) as soon as the guitars get really heavy it’s like the synth is gone and then just as soon as it’s a mellow part the pad is right in your face. Let it be said you can be mellow with guitars and you can be heavy with keys. Just look at a band like Meshuggah! Why are their breakdowns so heavy? It’s because the lead is always a weird, creepy, dissonant, and more or less clean guitar at the front of the mix. And when Farewell’s breakdowns are good on this record they use a very similar technique with Michele’s synth. It works because, to be frank, we’ve all heard guitars with that tone playing those breakdown rhythms. So when you incorporate a synth riff like the one near the beginning of “When We Hit The Ground” doing a simple repeated arpeggio over the heavy guitars it makes you appreciate them that much more. Sometimes thats all it takes. This song also has the most bad ass breakdown at the very end. This again is made even better with the dissonant low synth riff. The lower the note the more dread! (Fans of “Peep Show” might get that reference).

Track 6, “The Dude” is worth talking about only for the fact that is also has some good dread and a cool ambient part. The following song “Years” is a good example how the pad in this band becomes a bit redundant at times. When the guitars are strumming open power chords (a la pop punk style) the pad is just distracting. It’s just so many things playing the same four-chord progression that maybe my brain just won’t allow the extra instrument. Immediately following that part though, is a great example of the synth’s worth in the band with a cool complimentary lead riff.  This song also has a great outro! A nice cool ambient thing with a little bit of experimenting with the tone. “Here As One” and “Cemetary Dates” (amazing title) are along the same sort of line but not overly disappointing. Not worth talking about too much accept the former has a cool hardcore intro and the latter has a cool power metal bit at the end followed by some cool ambience. I know I have talked about the synth a lot and I will stop. But the last thing I want to say is that I hear the Micro-Korg coming into the track and I can hear her other synth (not sure what it is) coming in. I love the Micro-Korg! I have owned one in the past and it sounds great and adds so much where as the other one is used primarily for pads and sounds a touch cheesy. Ok thats all about synth I’ll talk about other things now.

The song worth talking about the most is the eighth track called “Waking The Giant.” It seems like they put the track on there as a cool ambient interlude but it is by far their best build on the album! It’s only 3:48 long but I would have been happy with them building on that riff for another 5-10 minutes. It’s such a great tapping riff and right as the build is getting intense they fade out. The Fade is cool, it just should have been a few minutes later. An extended live version would be a great live tool as well. I think the fans would really love a nice long change of pace and a break from pitting or throwing down or whatever the scene kids do in there that makes them look so ridiculous. Who the hell knows or wants to know what it’s called. The last song is way too similar to the first and has almost the exact same rhythm in the main riff and the same sort of structure. They should have cut that song and finished with a 9 minute version of waking the Giant. That would have been bad ass!

Just a quick side note concerning the whole scene kids in the pits scenario. I have a favourite story concerning the subject and the ongoing battle between the hardcore kids and the metal kids/adults. It happened oddly enough, at a Farewell To Freeway show. It was the tour kick off show for “In These Wounds” at a grimy hole called “Club Shadow”. Don’t get me wrong I do love the Shadow. Sounds way better than the Vinyl, it just smells horrible all the time. Anyway, I’m at the Farewell show and getting into it, and this was back when I loved to get into the pits, so naturally I was getting in there. I’m pitting harmlessly the way metal kids do and from behind me wouldn’t you know it some hardcore kid swinging his arms around like a douche bag catches me square in the nose. Of course it starts to bleed. Naturally I am just fuming, and although I’m not the biggest guy in the world, I’ve been told my “about-to-snap-face face,” is scary. And it had blood dripping down it. So I look up at a small ass dude wearing women’s jeans, a tight black shirt and a classic emo swoop dyed blonde. I take one step towards him and he just runs strait up the stairs at the Shadow and out of the club. I got a bloody nose at a Soulfly show too. But that time I was almost happy about and had a good laugh with the dude after. No scene kids at that show let me tell you! 

Anyway back to the album. Let’s talk about lyircs. They are pretty standard really and by far the cheesiest part of the record. The emotional tone of the choruses have really cheesy one line creeds like “Do you know who I am, and who I will be,”  ”Seek no redemption,” and “I won’t let it get the best of me.” As you can see it’s pure cheese and, dare I say, a bit too “Emo” for my liking. 

 

Overall musically it’s nothing spectacular but at least they have enough changes in a song to keep you interested and involved. They have a couple spots when I even said to myself “This reminds me of a Johnny Truant riff.” And for those of you who don’t know that band,  saying that is a HUGE compliment. As for all the members, they all hold it down. It’s hard to find a weak point accept for the fact the bass is almost never on its own. But in a band like this it almost always has to be that way. My most pleasant surprise was the production. This record sounds massive! The production is not unique in any way. But it gets the job done. I can nit pick about a lot of things and probably come up with a lot of reasons why it’s a “bad” record. But the bottom line for this music is that its catchy and it makes you bob your head. And I liked it!

Anyway that’s all for now. But I have recently downloaded the new Minsk record and I can’t wait to start listening to that. So you can expect a review of that shortly. Also I’m going to start a new thing with my posts where I say a something about stuff thats going on at the end… you’ll see.

Until next time… keep waging war on Kitsch! 

Hill of Yage

This week I’ve been listening to: Isis – Wavering Radiant

This week I’ve been watching: Peep show season 3 and re-watched Punch Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson = genious)

This week I’ve been reading: Finished “Homage To Catalonia” by George Orwell and now am starting the Dune series… gonna be a long hawl.

Odium’s first release lives up to title… “At The Bottom”

 

click the picture for a link to Odium's webpage

 

 

So I’m back from touring the east coast and thought I’d take time out of this glorious day to stay in a dark room and write about some local metal. Fitting don’t you think? As promised in the first post I’m gonna talk about a local Guelph band that has been recently signed to “Year Of The Sun.” 

I had the opportunity to see these guys at the Vinyl and spoke to every member including the lead singer who was ill at the time with a nagging cold. So, I was eager to hear his voice on a recording to get the full effect of the band. Also, the sound at the vinyl always sounds suspect to me unless you get a really big band coming through. So with all those variables it was impossible to get a good grasp on the artistic vision, (if any) and over all quality of the band. Needless to say, I had to come at the album with fresh ears. 

My first listen to this album was in the back seat of a car with three other guys. All three are into the genre and one follows and studies it closely. The reaction was a unanimous, “Ummmm let’s put the i-pod back on shuffle,” after about three songs. Once again though, it’s hard to really know what an artist is trying to do on an album in the the back seat of a car, although my initial reaction was not positive in anyway. I have since listened to it on my mixing speakers twice where the picture and  vision of the album came perfectly clear to me.   

The album starts out with the cliche metal production tool of the creepy intro into fast generic metal. Something we’ve all heard from bands like Metallica, Sepultura, Slayer, Children of Bodom, and the list goes on. The first song is called “Oblivion’s Gates.” Whiuch is just one example on the record of, not too subtle imagery notorious in all bands that strive as hard as they can to be “Metal”. I did, of course, find myself bobbing my head right off the bat to the fast guitars and constant double kick. But even for someone who lives and die’s by the heavy guitar and fast drums, that initial reaction I get to almost any metal was quickly quashed by the verse, chorus, verse, chorus, and half time breakdowns that anyone expects and now rolls their eyes at if they know anything about the genre. I would normally comment on lyrics from song to song and break them down as they pertain to the music specifically. But the lyrics throughout this record are just regurgitated so I will talk about them all in a later paragraph.

The album moves on from the first song to two more of pretty much the same vibe and caliber. Lamb of God verses into pop-metal chorus into a generic breakdown bridge with growl.  The fourth song however is worth commenting on for one very upsetting reason. It is (even more than the rest of the album) almost stolen directly from Lamb Of God. The riff (which is actually pretty bad ass) that comes in at about a minute is way too similar to a couple of Lamb Of God riffs. The one that comes immediately to my head is the break down riff near the beginning of “Break You” on the “Ashes Of The Wake” record and the first song on the “Wrath” record.  And although I’m not going to call Lamb Of God unique and groundbreaking, they are at this point the quintessential band in the genre and therefore come to mind when I see this kind subliminal (hopefully) plagiarism.

The title track “At The Bottom” is also worth mentioning for a couple of reasons. It, like all the others, has no real attempt to be unique in anyway. But it does have a lot of good things going for it. It’s the only song that has the catchy vocal line that has you singing after the record is done. The lyric “You can’t fix the broken and make them whole again. I’ll trust in you to leave me at the bottom.” is a pretty catchy melody and, for better or worse, has the same sort of impact that bands like “Evanescence,”  ”Lacuna Coil,” or Killswitch Engage use to sell into the platinum numbers. This in general is the main strength of the band. The long melodic vocals that sit above the heavy guitars in the chorus. The problem with this writing technique is that they abuse it horribly and there are always issues with reproducing that effect live. I’ll talk about that a bit more later. 

The rest of the album is pretty much the same as the first. They have their style set and don’t deviate at all from it…. EVER! Some songs like the vibe leading out of “The Failure” are cool. But it leads strait into riffs that, once again are border line stolen from grind bands like Lamb Of God. The other thing i notice when I was getting further into the album is the placement of hooks. They are always placed within the first forty five seconds of the song. That exact same thing is the killer of every decent metal band. It was the different between the the glorious Metallica records of the early 80’s and the over produced records following “And Justice For All”. Granted, Metallica went from selling 100 000 copies of their record to selling over a million copies of the black album. But they also lost all credibility in the real underground metal scene which the used to dominate. Basically if you are writing the kind of “metal” that relies on the catchy hook at 30 seconds it loses all credibility as “metal.” If this is the route you choose to go than you are no better than the four o’clock after-school, much-music, pop hit of the week. Or to put it bluntly… selling out before you’ve even had a chance to really make a name for yourself.

The record ends much like it began which the strait up speed metal. Taking their queues from Lamb Of God once again. The last intense song, “Need To Exist” is probably the biggest example. This song hurt me physically. Although it had the quick metal changes and good drum fills linking the various sections, the song is the definition of generic. You want to tell them to stop by the end. If it wasn’t for the choruses with the attempt to be catchy I would have no doubt that Lamb Of God’s lawyers would be at their door ready to take legal action. The last song is the only none grind song on the album which creates a cool vibe and is a decent ending, but still very far from the category of unique. 

Individually, It’s clear that all the members, accept maybe the bass player, can hold it down! (nothing against the bass player it’s just hard to make an assessment on something that isn’t really even there) The guitar players can both play the fast riffs with the best of them and the singer clearly has some skills as he shows he can do a lot with his voice from growling to screaming to singing and beyond. In this genre though, you have to have a sick drummer. Odium’s drummer, Joe Mullen, clearly shows he is up to the task both on the album and in the live scenario. His beats, of course, can’t make up for the song-writing but at least helps to keep the listener involved with something going on. But you can only do so much from behind the kit and where Odium really lacks is song-writing. Which leads me to my next point of interest… lyrics!

My mom always told that if I didn’t have anything nice to say… just shut the hell up. So basically I’m going to keep it short. The lyrics are the most random compilation of metal cliches you could possibly imagine. One line has no continuity to the next and it all seems like a bunch of lines that might make the band seem as “Metal” as possible just thrown next to each other. I could rant about this subject for a long time so I’m going to stop. But I’ll leave you with some examples that are sure to make you roll your eyes.

“Let go of my hand – You’ll never stop this – Give me the shape to create life and I’ll make you a gun”

“She’s the only one that could save me – I know your concrete heaven – a prison for my mind”

“If i could breathe again I’d look down at the writing on the wall”

“My mind’s a feeding ground – You were the only star in this place of ashes”

I could go on but you get the idea. A whole lot of trying to deep and coming up massively short. You can be “metal” without resorting to the darkest creepiest lyrics that come to your head. I’d like to show Thomas some Lye By Mistake, Isis, or Between The Buried and Me (if he hasn’t heard them already) To prive that point. I wonder if perhaps some of the the time spent on the obvious over-production of the music on this album could have been spent on the lyrics. But thats just one issue i have with the production. It looks like Greg Dawson was the primary guy in charge of everything on this record as he gets credit as the producer, executive producer, engineer, mixer and mastering engineer. The mix and the engineering in general on this record is pretty solid. There are almost no complaints on my end with the sounds. The guitars are huge, the drums are in your face, and the vocals sounds the way they should in every section. My only issues with the mix is that the guitar tones never change, the drums sound like over-confined plastic, and the bass is barely there. All these problems are inherent to the genre. You put it any strait up grind band’s album you’re going to hear the classic “wooden paddle smacking the top of a large slab of butter” sounding kick drum and a complete lack of bass. I shouldn’t say lack of bass. It’s there and you can tell it’s there but no effort is made to give it its own identity in any way. Which also stems from poor song-writing. So the record sounds good but if Greg Dawson had a heavy hand in the production of the actual songs themselves then i have issue with his work there. The song structure was made exactly like a pop song in every track. Even if Greg changed nothing in the songs, a decent producer should have red flagged the never ending monotonous song-structure and regurgitation that is everywhere on the album. A true high class professional producer would have instantly cut about seven songs off of the record and told the band to spend another few months on writing and pre-production until the have a product that’s worth while. The difference of live vocals to studio version in this band was huge as well. I give props to Greg for making the vocals sound dirty during the heavy parts and big and spacious during the choruses. But the problem is, no one else in the band does the vocal thing. So live it sounds empty in a lot of parts. There are also many sections where there was an obvious usage of elastic time or some other waveform stretching tool as many times you could here a vocal note that has been unnaturally elongated. Which will also lead to massive empty spots ion the live show. Also, someone (probably the executive producer) should have also stopped the horrible art work from being printed. I mean… five guys in cloaks standing in the mist isn’t exactly the most unique metal cover. They might as well have put a skull with a snake crawling through the eye socket in the cover.

Overall as a first effort from a band it’s a pretty solid album. They show some decent potential as a band and if they can grow and show some variation in their song-writing they may have a bright future as the band obviously has some skill. Although this record will never be listened to again by me or likely anyone else who owns a Lamb Of God record, I can’t wait to see where they will take their sound on the next recording. If they get the chance to make one. Look for this record at a used CD store near you in the coming months or save your money and spend it on the new Mono album which I am still obsessing over. Hymn To The Immortal Wind has over 2o plays already in my itunes. 

So that’s what I thought of the debut album from Odium. I hope it wasn’t too harsh as I know all the dudes are great guys and are super nice. I also know they have a copy of our record. So fire right back if you want to guys!

Thats all for now… I may go on to Isis’ new record for the next review as I have not heard it yet and although they are one of the best post-metal bands out there, the word on the street isn’t very good for their newest release. 

Thanks for reading,

Hill

Mono’s ‘Hymn’ destined to be ‘Immortal’

 

click the picture for an album promo video

Well seeing as this is my first post I thought I’d mention a couple of things about myself and where I’m coming from with respect to the reviews I will be doing in the future. Really there’s not much to know, I graduated from the world-famous Music Industry Arts program at Fanshawe College. I play in a progressive/post-rock band called The Yage Letters. The link to our site is just on the right there.

 

When it comes to art, and in particular music and film, I have 2 main creeds. First and foremost I believe that there is a monumental difference between personal preference and artistic quality. The inability for people to come to grips with this fact is a substantial fault in our society. One needs to be able to admit that they like something that has no artistic value in any way.  One also needs to accept the fact that a piece of well thought-out, artistically written art may not be their proverbial cup of tea. And that, by the way, is fine! There are a ton of albums and films out there are brilliant that I just don’t like all that much, but I’m still not going to be afraid to call them wonderful and important pieces of art.

 

The second is that no matter what genre of film or music you look at there are always decent artists doing something. One cannot impugn an entire genre of any kind wholly. This also comes back to my first creed. One’s preference may not be country, (in my case) death metal, folk, or whatever, but it’s downright outrageous to say there is nothing of value in any genre. There are literally hundreds of thousands of different people playing every genre or music and making every different type of film. Therefore if you dig deep enough, by the laws of nature and physics someone has to be doing something worthwhile!

 

So my goal with this blog is pretty strait forward. I feel like I have the knowledge and the general perspective to be able to talk about albums and films in matter that I’d like to share with others. I’m also one that is always talking about different works from both mediums to excess with friends and family, so I figure this may be a good way to save both parties from unnecessary rants and praise.

 

For my first review I was planning on doing a local metal act’s first major release. But then I listened to the newest album from a Japanese instrumental band signed to Temporary Residence. I’m talking, of course, about Mono.  I simply have to talk about this record for a number of reasons. Not the least is that it’s an easy start to the blog as I have been a fan of Mono since a good friend and band mate burned me a copy of their 2003 release from the same label called “One More Step And You Die”.  Since then I have been studying their catalogue and got a chance to see them at the Opera House last year where I witnessed one of the most powerful performances I had ever seen and will likely ever see again.

 

Promo shot for "You Are There" album

 

Their new album is called “Hymn To The Immortal Wind”, a concept album that parallels an epic love story. This album has more layers and imagery than I ever will be able to comprehend. It moves effortlessly between dark and light, joyful and heartbreaking, and evokes more emotion than any album I have ever experienced. The story, to me is told two different ways. One moves forward and one is moving from the end to the beginning as the contrasting imagery of life and death and the journey towards both is being shown.

 

The first time I heard the album I got a sense of a story moving backwards starting with death and finishing with life. I got the sense of being slowly drawn into someone’s life at their last breath and they are remembering the epic journey they took to get there and the one thing that mattered at the end, which was this one person in his life. It’s almost as if his life, though this one person, has flashed before his and our eyes. But after taking in the album, and entering the world that mono has created a number of times, I now see a different picture. I see a story about someone searching for his or her lover through endless trials and hardships but at the same time on a clearly laid out path. Searching with no other direction other than the one right in front of you no matter how hard they try to turn away. But it all seems to be happening in a different life as if both characters have died and are trying to find each other in the after life. But in both stories I get a sense of death leading to life in the end. I’m sure as I listen to this record many more times over the years it will paint many more pictures and tell more and more stories each time.

 

To highlight a couple of songs I’ll start with the first track. The album gets going with one of the five songs on the album that are more than ten minutes long called “Ashes In The Snow.”  The song gives a haunting start to the album with the rustling of the orchestra in their seats and the tapping of the conductor’s baton on his music stand. The song follows the traditional Mono structure for the most part. They establish a theme and without breaking away from it too much they use their dynamics to create a huge amount of intensity and space. It’s over 4 minutes before the song reaches it’s first peek and the extreme opposite right after leaves your body covered in goose bumps through till the end of the song. It’s the perfect start to the story line as it is the most reflective and emotional song but with a sense of hope at the end as well. At almost eight minutes, where the song finally gets to it’s ultimate peek we hear Yasunori Takada’s unique drums style that is pummeling yet still creates space and supports the overall size of the guitars and strings so well. It’s a hard song to top but the rest of the album follows it perfectly.

 

It is a concept record but each song has it’s own vibe as far as dynamics and theme. That being said tracks two and three I feel go together more than any others. Track two, entitled “Burial At Sea,” is the definition of a good strong build and should be an example in textbooks and music classrooms everywhere on how to do just that. When it reaches its’ ultimate peek at almost eight and a half minutes the drums are about as powerful a they come on any record. Tamaki Kunishi’s huge bass chords provide an enormous backdrop for everyone else throughout the record, but she is especially noticeable at the end of this song. She meshes perfectly with the drums allowing both guitars to create that vintage mono intensity throughout. When the song makes the transition to the six minute track called “Silent Flight Sleeping Dawn” its barely noticeable that the track even changed as it moves into a beautiful string and piano driven track that seems to be there almost in support or the second part of the conversation started in “Burial At Sea.” The strings and overall beauty of the song is enough to make you want to weep and is a nice break from the surrounding songs that are so intense it’s hard to have one after another.

 

The whole album is one massive highlight and every song has it’s own unique flavour. But in order to save some time I’ll just mention a couple things about the middle tracks. “Follow The Map” has perhaps the most gorgeous slide guitar I have ever heard, as “Yoda” and Takaakira “Taka” Goto are complete masters of their instrument throughout. The last song “Everlasting Light” is the perfect song to end on, and probably my favourite on the album. The hypnotic piano at the beginning with the effortless drone of the guitars is all that’s needed to draw you into the world this song creates and never let you go. It has probably the most unique and interesting chord progression on the album as well, straying a bit from the strait up major vibe of most of the album. It’s called “Everlasting Light” and I wish it were everlasting. It’s only ten and a half minutes long yet could easily be double that. They do such a magnificent job of building this song until the very end where the punishing climax of the whole album, followed by the immediate silence, leaves your body in chills for minutes afterwards. You feel like you’ve just been on a long journey and have had a shared experience with the band, the orchestra, the writers, and anyone else who worked on the album.

 

Speaking of working on the album, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t talk a bit about the production. This is the area on every record where I find it’s easiest to be picky and find fault, and believe me I was looking. I knew I would have a biased opinion coming into the record cause I was already a big fan of the band, so I was going through as closely as I could looking for any fault. And although at times there were aspects of the production I would have done differently, there is not even one mistake or bad decision. The album was recorded all analogue and you can tell. The warmth of the tape is the perfect compliment to this massive sound. The confined nature of pro-tools is something they did not want on the album that much is clear. It’s one of the most natural sounding records I’ve heard in a long time as you can hear the orchestra move in their seats during quieter parts along with the conductor talking at points.

 

The panning is basic. Yoda on one side, Takka on the other, and Tamaki up the middle at most points. That being said there is way more going on in the spectrum than you initially hear as different parts of the orchestra move in and out. The glockenspiel is also panned quite cool as individual notes will ping pong back and forth in the spectrum. As far as tone goes, as always, Mono are the best. They have some of most magnificent guitar tones around. I guess I also owe partial thanks and credit to Fender for that. As a lot of the spring reverb is obviously Fender and I’m sure they use Fender guitars throughout the record as the play Stratocasters, Mustangs, and Jaguars live. The bass tone, although it doesn’t change much, is the massive consistent undercurrent they need in every song and it is mixed perfectly for the guitars to rest on ever so gently.

 

Overall I really can’t say enough good things about this record. The writing, instrumentation, musicianship, production, and everything in between are nothing short of perfect. To me this is like Mono’s “Dark Side Of The Moon”.  It sounds to me like they have accomplished everything that they set out to do and maybe didn’t have the backing or time to do in their past records. It will go down in history as Mono’s quintessential album and establishes them, in my view, as the quintessential band in the genre. Not to take anything away from bands like Explosions In The Sky or A Silver Mount Zion, but this record separates Mono from all else. They are beyond post-rock now and should just be considered 21^st century classical. There has never been an album that matches the sheer epic scale and size of this record. To put it bluntly it is one of the most important albums of all time! It’s one that must be listened to by anyone who enjoys well-written music. It might be a hard one to find in stores, but you can get a hard copy on CD or vinyl on their website for $12 and $20 respectively. If you’re ok with a digital copy it’s on iTunes for $9.99, and of course there are a few decent torrents out there. Normally I am not only ok with downloading but encourage it to avoid supporting major labels. But this is one that I strongly encourage to buy a hard copy of. This band, and the label they are on for that matter, is worth spending the money in order to give them the support!

 

So that’s all I have to say about that record. Later on in the week I will put up a review of, Odium’s first release called “At The bottom.”

 

Peace,

 

Hill