02022012

MyGrain - Signs Of Existence (2008)

(melodic death metal / metalcore)

Admittedly I lashed out whips of praise to MyGrain's 2010 self-titled release and with high hopes cuffed my hands greedily around their previous works as well - throwing away my preconceptions for the album, created by one of the most unimaginative album titles. As far as my knowledge goes, MyGrain, a Finnish five-peace melodeath act, produces metal that has all the attributes for a perfect headphone experience. Lush drum lines making their way from your right eardrum to your left, smooth keyboard sounds to please the god of sounds in your head and easy-to-listen-to vocals. But that's about in-depth as you can go with them.

Signs of Existence is the first metal album you ever really liked when you were 15: uplifting, seemingly brutal, full of unknown post-apocalyptic messages for you to decipher. I'd be lying if I'd say I didn't get into metal because of such music. Asphyxiated and Inflammable, The Psychonaut and Human Wasteland are your metalcore gateway drug, bringing you closer to another trip with different, actual substances.

Despite the unimaginative album title, the album art as engrossing as a staring contest, and the nearly abhorrent lyrics (submerge into my shadow / collide my absorbing dark halo), I'd say we have a concubine child of a metal album - produced 'just because'.

16012012

A compilation of 2011 albums that made a difference in my life

After a proper sit-down-shut-up-and-listen session I came to a valid conclusion on what albums I should list here. This 25 album list consists of the albums that were produced in 2011 and were important to me in a strong manner. The list does not show them in an order from the best to worst because in my opinion a comparison between various genres of music is just impossible. Instead it shows them in an order on how much impact they had on my life - how they shaped my past year of 2011.

In (nearly) every picture I have included a link to an album review of the album at hand - written by yours truly - if you wish to read more on how I felt about the individual album in detail. I have also included a link to a song from each album, which will direct you to a random copy of the song on Youtube.

If you have any comments or opinions on the list, please drop a comment! I hope you can find something on the list that you haven't tried before and support the artists by buying their music. Enjoy!

*shels - Plains of the Purple Buffalo
(post-rock / shoegaze / atmospheric sludge metal)

"A piece of art with somber melancholia, serrated distortion and simple euphoria combined."

music.stream


Fair To Midland - Arrows and Anchors
(alternative rock / progressive metal / avant-garde metal)

"The time spent with this album trickled from my hands as the sand does from an hourglass."

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Mastodon - The Hunter
(progressive metal / sludge metal)

"A sludge metal shotgun - the shot explodes onwards as a blunt entity, splinters into shards of single heavy pieces of metal and strikes the target triumphantly straight into the heart."

music.stream 

Ghost Brigade - Until Fear No Longer Defines Us 
(atmospheric sludge metal / progressive metal)

"The repentance and penitence of a man on his knees, waiting for the sunlight to burst into his heart."

music.stream 


Tenhi - Saivo
(dark folk / ambient)

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SBTRKT - SBTRKT
(future garage / wonky)

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Foo Fighters - Wasting Light
(rock)

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Grails - Deep Politics 
(post-rock / instrumental rock)

"The way I see it, feel it and hear it, the album is the story of a dead town at the Western end of the world."

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M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
(electronic / ambient / post-rock)

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Times Of Grace - Hymn of a Broken Man
(melodic hardcore)

"Intense drumming, vocals that make you want to raise your fist up just like back in the day, and the echo-rotation of the lyrics sung."

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Myrath - Tales of the Sands
(symphonic metal / power metal / arabian folk music)

"Standing on the brink of greatness, Myrath showed an oasis at the end of a three album march."

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Thursday - No Devolución
(post-hardcore)

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Cave In - White Silence
(post-hardcore / noise rock / sludge metal)

"I don't know how Cave In does it, but they are able to shift their musical style from port to starboard without any complexities along the deck." 

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Long Distance Calling - Long Distance Calling

(post-rock / instrumental rock) 

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A Winged Victory For The Sullen - A Winged Victory For The Sullen
(modern classical / ambient)

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Uitgezonderd - Burning Giraffes at Sea
 (drone / ambient)

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Like Rats From A Sinking Ship - We Get Along Like a House on Fire
(screamo / hardcore)

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Vektor - Outer Isolation
(technical thrash metal)

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CunninLynguists - Oneirology
(conscious hip hop)

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Steven Wilson - Grace for Drowning

(progressive rock / alternative rock)

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Wolves In The Throne Room - Celestial Lineage
(atmospheric black metal / blackgaze)

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Sobre A Máquina - Areia

(drone / drone doom metal / industrial)

"Some sadistic part of myself was already enjoying the cacophony created by the music bouncing off the empty walls of my flat, creating a vortex of echoes that made me balance on the verge of sanity."

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Logreybeam - Perhaps
(neo-classical)

"An afternoon stroll in the warmest of all autumns where the bright, orange leaves are but tiles of the forest floor."


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柏 大輔 - 88
(neo-classical)

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A Storm Of Light - As the Valley of Death Becomes Us, Our Silver Memories Fade
(atmospheric sludge metal / post-metal)

"Drums like hammerfalls on an anvil, vocals brushed with rust and wavering, sludgy riffs that penetrate the sides of clean execution and granular mass of sounds without ever reaching the end of either side."

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12122011

Sobre A Màquina - Areia (2011)

(drone / drone doom metal / industrial)

The first time I listened to Sobre A Máquina was an unintentionally terrifying moment. I had moved all of my stuff out of my apartment and the only things left were the four gray walls, a flat mattress and my nearly ancient, yet still sound-producing, speakers. I had forgotten my speakers on a volume just slightly too loud and when I pressed play on Lingua Negra I was met with a drill that drove straight into my eardrums and seemed to escape out of every hole in my body. I was left immobilized on the floor with the hauntigly slow melodies starting to occupy my mind. I couldn't turn the volume lower because some sadistic part of myself was already enjoying the cacophony created by the music bouncing off the empty walls of my flat, creating a vortex of echoes that made me balance on the verge of sanity.

Hailing from Brazil the band delivers a sound you might necessarily not expect. There is no cheer, no uproar, no emotion in this music. Areia presents the sounds of an abandoned factory in a world that seized to exist an eternity ago. The machines produce nothing and run on anything. Barca, a broken ship, is somehow full of unknown melacholy. Machinery of sadness.

The general sound of the album is quite raw and the line of enjoyment is not far. Consisting of only four tracks you would like them to form an entity as opposed to being singular track productions. Foz, for example, would work as a towering single piece of music but is not a team player, grasping all the attention.

A few years from now, I would like to have the same echo-experience with a matured Sobre A Màquina in a white apartment room with the resemblance of a sanitarium studio. A factory of dead sounds that would make me feel alive.

30112011

Sucioperro - The Heart String & How To Pull It (2011)

(alternative rock)

 

Ever since Random Acts of Intimacy came out I've been waiting for another Scottish piece of brilliance from the trio of Sucioperro. By Mum's Bad Music it hadn't come out and I grew weary. By Pain Agency, I still saw no sign of it. When The Heart String & How To Pull It hit the shelves, I was not waiting in the line, neither was I the guy who always orders pre-orders. My fanboy-ism towards this band ended either with this album sounding flat or me getting too musically demanding – not being able to respect simple music anymore. Regardless of the path, the destination was the same.

The general repetance of the songs gets dull after the three first tracks and JP Reid's voice, the one I would listen to for hours while jamming to Marmaduke Duke, never sounded so emotionless. Simple guitar lines accompanied by the steady comping that doesn't quite manage to surprise make you want to speed-scroll through the whole album. Even Out & Over's reedy riffs can't lift my spirit up.

Is That Why You Pull Me In? Is the most refreshing addition to the album but seems to be a bit out of place, and is lyrically atrocious.

I guess I'm just better off reminiscing over Random Acts of Intimacy. I just can't pull this string.

22112011

Myrath - Tales Of The Sands (2011)

(symphonic metal / power metal / arabian folk music)
 

With the beginning riff of Under Siege, devastating as the fall of Carthage, bringing forth the album with the strength of a thousand mercenaries, you're left standing in the sandstorm. Captivated, intrigued, desperate to hear more. Tales Of The Sands, the third release by Myrath, takes you a step further into the desert of modern day North African music, which rarely sees daylight. Their combination of symphonic power metal and arabian folk music is a mature take on infusing ethinicity with sounds - and one can only sit down on the top of the widest dune, feel the wind blowing grains of sand against the barren valleys of your face and wait for the battle to brew.

With the general focus residing within the ethnic touch of arabian music - supporting, even dominating, the song structures - Myrath have ruthlessly abandoned the traditional lines of their genre. Carefully balancing between the walls of overdone and amazing, the oriental touch casts you into a dance with bedouin swords.

Epic lyrics of warmongery and waging great battles, the pitfall of many power metal bands, is something I can enjoy here, though. Zorgati's vocals draw the interest rather into the sound of them than the actual message; to emphasize this even more the Arabic vocal sections in songs such as the title track make you forget about the reality of words. Whereas the excessively done keyboard spikes want you to hear less of instruments and more of vocals.

The frailty of the album lies within repetition, which was quite expected when you see the track listing consisting of 11 songs with their lengths bound from their ankles to the five-minute fence of mediocrity. The powerful effect of short tracks gets lost somewhere between the third and the fifth track, which is a shame because the rest of the album provides outstanding riffs and razing drum lines in songs like Beyond The Stars.

Standing on the brink of greatness, Myrath showed an oasis at the end of a three album march. Their sound leaves a craving ring into your ears and you're left on the same dune, wanting to descend into the battle with your shashka pointing towards the clear blue skies. Tales Of The Sands is not the city of Carthage in its peak of glory but makes the morning sun rise in the East for a new day in power metal.

23092011

City and Colour - Little Hell (2011)

(singer-songwriter / contemporary folk / acoustic rock)

Songs for lovers on a night's meadow with a gentle breeze soothing their skin and stars glitterning to engulf their entwined hands in a shimmering light. We Found Each Other In The Dark and Little Hell are definitions of Dallas Green's voice and songwriting skills and I fail to find mediocrity on the album. Yet, there is no instant hook. The acoustic sing-alongs and easy guitar handling make your day go by as a boatride on a lake of summer but it's not the album you and your loved one will remember from your innocent youth. Then again, does every album need to be memorable?

music.stream

22092011

Mastodon - The Hunter (2011)

(progressive metal / sludge metal)

The fallen leaves of Crack The Skye rattle under your feet while you tramp the forest floor of the autumn with a steady pace. The long melodies of the summer are far gone from your mind, like anything else. Your focus is keen on one thing, your game. With the rifle latched against your shoulder, your eyes screening the wooden wastelands for the slightest sign of movement, your feet moving forward in a unnoticed manner. The acute bark of a dog. Your muscles tense, your senses sharpen. A bulky caribou strides in front of your eyes and your finger finds the ever-so soothing trigger of the gun.

The heavy introductory appearance of Black Tongue bursts out violently and shreds all hope apart. The direction of the album has been set to short, striking, dynamic. Singular spectacles skattered around the woods with Curl Of The Burl following the genesis of the album with a radio-friendly chorus that you can't help enjoying. The forbidden fruits of Mastodon have all been adjusted into a tight pack of wolves. The Hunter has been born.

The non-conceptuality of The Hunter strikes down hard as a fresh new wind in an autumn storm. The album is easy to listen to, there are no unnecessary breakdowns, the flow is powerful, dynamic even and Drailor's vocals blend well into the overall sound with Creature Lives being a vocal vantage point for him.

The title track of the album and Thickening exemplify the musicianships of Hinds and Kelliher with sounds of their guitars slowly drilling into your face.The heavy riffs splintered with sharp solos make the majority of the album a pleasure to listen to.

Mastodon's bullet never hit the target with The Hunter but the sound is definitely not just a dog whistle driving your inner self to the edge of sanity. A sludge metal shotgun - the shot explodes onwards as a blunt entity, splinters into shards of single heavy pieces of metal and strikes the target triumphantly straight into the heart.

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09092011

Black Sheep Wall - I Am God Songs (2008)

(sludge metal / doom metal)

The aggregrated rawness penetrates through your chest and rips your back open right from the beginning. Nihility underlines what I Am God Songs is about. Brutal vocals, serrated sludge riffs and bashing the drums as if they weren't there. Generally I have found the sludge metal albums I've recently tried out borderline lackluster but Black Sheep Wall has provided me with a surprisingly refreshing release. Though, refreshing is probably not the most descriptive word - mind-repressing would probably depict the mental image of a man crouched into the corner of his chamber greedily marvelling this conglomeration of anger much better.

Whereas I fail to see the doom metal resemblance in the music, the slight mathcore touch pleases my ears. The songs, intertwined around a spin of chaos, are quite strictly organized and Thompson's drumming stands out from the mass as forging a blade in an ironworks. Modest Machine and Ten Fucking Billion seem to be the pillars that hold the album together, seeing as how the shorter tracks seem to have a fairly redundant role.

After some elaboration and maturity, we should have ourselves a violently good sludge metal band here right here. For a debut, Black Sheep Wall has made a formidable one.

.i am rendered helpless.

25082011

Logreybeam - Perhaps (2011)

(neo-classical)

Soothing, calm piano melodies accompanied by a peaceful gypsy-ish accordion collapse the modern world on something much older. An afternoon stroll in the warmest of all autumns where the bright, orange leaves are but tiles of the forest floor.

Try: Perhaps 

.this torment and this thought.

22082011

Ghost Brigade - Until Fear No Longer Defines Us (2011)

(atmospheric sludge metal / progressive metal)

Closed curtains refuse to let the daylight penetrate through, the slight beams of light wander lost somewhere in the gray haze of the autumn. The room behind the curtains is as dark and solemn as the man sitting inside it. The floor filled with debris, the shelves bending under the weight of drained bottles of something stronger than spring water. The only thing visible on the face of the crestfallen man are a stubble replete enough to be called a beard and the clean lines carving a canyon down from his eyes - the path of tears that have dried ages ago. He has no one but the black rain bludgeoning its droplets against the only window in the room.

I think that when a band manages to create such vivid imagery into your mind during one monumental album, you can't help but to lay high expectations on what will follow. Isolations Songs is single-handedly emotionally the most raw, sullen creation I have heard up to date in genre of metal. Until Fear No Longer Defines Us, the third full-length album from the Finnish quintet, is not a lonesome man on the verge of a silent suicide. No, it is the repentance and penitence of a man on his knees, waiting for the sunlight to burst into his heart.

Sitting on my floor, curtains closed, rain quietly hammering against my window and only a small table lamp illuminating my room. In The Woods fell as silently on my shoulders as the dusk falls over daylight with the acoustic wonders of music forming their own residence inside my head. The expectant feeling rose throughout the whole song and the wait for the burst of agony felt like three eternities woven into each other but when Clawmaster's first lines of 

Sweating blood
Wading in mud

bellowed belligerently out of my speakers, I was as home as a Finnish man could be.

 There is clear progress from the previous work. The guitars have partly shifted from serrated soulreaping to mildly melodical power-risers. Traces Of Liberty and Divine Act Of Lunacy demonstrate the aforementioned progress when their choruses take their toll of the listener's unconsciousness.

Unline most metal bands, I find Ghost Brigade to excel in the lyrical manner as well. The despondent vocal compositions of Ikonen freeze your ears and fortify the effect the simplified, yet cunningly metaphorical lyrics create. Breakwater, the towering title-track-intention, verbally depicts a sinking man grasping for his last breathes of air - a refusal to fall down from his knees, a struggle to get back up on his feet.

As generic of Ghost Brigade tracks as Call Of Decay and Torn may seem, they are still buried deeper in darkness and carved further into the musical flesh than the majority of the songs in the whole genre. With Soulcarvers ending the album in a feeling of the want of raising your hand towards the sky in a formation of potential throes of perdition, one is left staring blankly forward in admiration.

Admiration.

.drifting in air, above the droning sounds.

08082011

Trivium - In Waves (2011)

(melodic metalcore)

Generally the most descriptive term most people who rate albums on a frequent basis are able to find for Trivium and the whole genre of metalcore is balls. I wouldn't concur that this is the most metaphorically figurative noun that can be said to depict the music of the given band into the minds of people. Yet, unfortunately it also holds some truth within, and the fiftfh studio album of Trivium exaplains why.

Capsizing The Sea is probably the most outside-the-box thing that Trivium has ever done musically and it blends quite well with the follow-up title track In Waves. The haunting piano melody and Heafy's crushing growls start the album off and lay out great expectations on the table cleaned by the previous effort, Shogun, which I actually found quite enjoyable. Normally I listen to metalcore when excercising and I had to try this album as a possible replacement for Shogun before I could critically review it. 

The result: replacement unsuccessful.

The album is crammed with short tracks that are connected to each other with instrumental interludes, yet it lacks the straight-forward coherency that this lay-out should create. Single tracks are able to stand out from the line of musical privates and Forsake Not The Dream and Of All These Yesterdays actually sound great booming out loud. These alone can't create an aura of excellence around the album, though.

The lyrical thematics get lost somewhere between obscurity and obsolescence and provide me with nothing I would not have known already, which I find to be a problem in quite a few metalcore bands. Overall, a decent follow-up to Shogun but when you're expecting a band defining themselves musically and are faced with a band defying your musical taste, you can't help but to feel slight disappointment.

Generic, over-produced, flat.

.i'm falling in this colossal void.

02082011

A Storm Of Light - As The Valley Of Death Becomes Us, Our Silver Memories Fade (2011)

(atmospheric sludge metal / post-metal)

Missing slams down as the first track of the album and already describes the most of what the album has to offer. Drums like hammerfalls on an anvil, vocals brushed with rust and wavering, sludgy riffs that penetrate the sides of clean execution and granular mass of sounds without ever reaching the end of either side. The featuring vocals and various artists do not stick out from the mass but one can be lead into the thought that they were never meant to.

As The Valley Of Death Becomes Us, Our Silver Memories Fade is the third full-length album from the Brooklyn-based post-metal group, A Storm Of Light. The band has improved with every album and ironically, their best work up to day is a split album with Nadja - Primitive North was the rising tide that carried the band further. The long album title of the latest indicates that the band is clearly ready for defining their own sound and with Josh Graham of Red Sparowes as the frontman the direction towards attention in the post-metal section is more than crystalized.

Yet, the album seems to have come out as a tangled mess of everything. As if there was no decision on whether to focus on the lyrics, the album features long instrumental sections of, I admit, well-executed drumming and slow, mashed guitar riffs as well as forward-ramming vocals with lyrical complexity in them. Black Wolves leaves us a lyrical code to decipher with its metaphorical delivery but musically it doesn't strike one as anything staggering.

Dawn burns through the trees
Sheltered you hide
A soulless Babylon preached fear
And our guns weep poison

Majority of the songs would generally be better off without the vocals seeing as how the instrumental aspect of the album is only a little flawed. Wretched Valley is left as a cult of ruins because of non-necessary vocals, even though Leave No Wounds is rightfully supported by them.

By carving out the slight repetition from the album, adding some ardor into the vocals and lengthening the instrumental parts, A Storm Of Light has all the qualities of becoming a large contender on the battlefield of post-metal.

.bludgeoned by our own hand.

26072011

Two People In A Room - Two People In A Room (2011)

(ambient / drone)

There are moments in your life when the world comes to complete halt. It seems like everything around you turns into slow motion, the clocks stop from turning and your movements become as intricate as the instincts of a highly fragile being. Your touch becomes light, yet smooth as silk, as your fingers run on the bare back muscles of the person lying next to you. The room is empty - normally there would be furniture, pictures, mirrors, everything you can find in a normal room. Yet, this day is simply not normal. You are the only two elements in the room and there is nothing else.

Two People In A Room  is a Berlin-based ambient/drone duo formed by Michelle Hughes & René Margraff in September 2009. I had never heard of them until this album, which captured a certain day of my life instantly. Ambient music needs to be very descriptive in order to penetrate into the unconscious of the listener. There are no vocals, barely any melodies even. The music needs to create an atmosphere so vivid that it fills the entire room with its spirit, yet it must go unnoticed as the shadows over a dirt path - it cannot interfere with your thought process.

Side By Side and Crash Your Plane, Walk Away begin the album off by processing through 20 minutes of your life to absorb you into the world the rest of the album will create. The occasional sounds of the guitar combined with the hum in the background create a stagnant feeling and leave you immobilized for a moment. The feeling is lost throughout the slow chord progression of Holiday On Air Force One, which creeps up to its climax without never really reaching it, leaving the listener hoping for something never to come.

The album is not a flawless mixture of ambient sounds but it manages to grasp the single feeling of being alone with someone in a room. Inside the room the world revolved around you, you are the world. As solid as the album is, I felt no addiction towards it. Two People In A Room set the bait well but forgot to plant the hook inside it.

17072011

Fair To Midland - Arrows And Anchors (2011)

(alternative rock / progressive metal / avant-garde metal)

People have always carved symbols into the tombstones of the departed - the ones they have cried tears of sorrow for and the ones they wish never to rise from the abyss. In gravestones the arrow symbolizes martyrdom and mortality, which bear strange resemblance to each other. One is defying the inevitable whereas one is the inevitable. Of old, the anchor has been a symbol of hope and eternal life in Christian burial. The sailing ships from this world to the next, the solemn anchor deserted at the gray havens.

After a burial of four years, Fair To Midland rises from the ground, shattering their tombstones into shards of granite.  Reincarnation is not possible when you have never been deceased. Thus, the band defies their mortality and has created a piece of music promising hope and giving an eternal life to the ears of its serendipitous listener. Fables From A Mayfly set the bar high in 2007 but Fair To Midland's latest, Arrows And Anchors, not only leaps over the bar with major ease but has also brought a bar of its own, which is set musical miles above the previous. Not only has the band come to life, they have also brought a different form of life into their music. Life that implodes your speakers.

A tight combination of Fair To Midland's greatest assets is bound to point the arrow into the right direction. Cunningly crafted and well-inserted introductions and interludes, crashing guitar riffs amongst a woodland of densely planted drum comping, Sudderth's vocals of an angel in exile and metaphorically curious lyrics. In addition to this aggregation of sonority, the band has also added catchy choruses. Musical Chairs provides a backbone for the album - it has all of the above. Lyrical pondering of an eternal life and its existence, Sudderth's absorbing vocals and the catchy chorus.

Arrows And Anchors is a lot heavier than their previous album. Joe Barresi's rough handprints can be seen all over but the new product line has also brought a refreshing emphasis on the keyboards of Langley, which is clearly visible in songs such as Uh-Oh and Coppertank Island.

Someone yelled in the wake of the great collapse.

With Amarillo Sleeps Over My Pillow I'm left standing in the black rain with my hands shaking from the cold and my head rattling from the sheer strength from the song. The fresh heaviness becomes real throughout the album and the new sound definitely leaves one astounded. Not only is the album a heavy entity woven intricately together but it also manages to let singular tracks stand out from the masses. This is a respectable difference to the past and and upgrading the brigade of the whole diminishing genre of alternative metal in total.

After being pulverized into amazement by the anthem of Golden Parachutes and getting slammed sideways by the enthrallingly groovy Rikki Tikki Tavi, I'm left standing at the end of the album at the feet of a 11-minute behemoth of Greener Grass. The time spent with this album trickled from my hands as the sand does from an hourglass. The epitaph of Fair To Midland will include both, the arrow and the anchor, and with this album, they are engraved into my mind as well.

.when you saw the falling arrows.

06072011

*shels - Plains Of The Purple Buffalo

(post-rock / shoegaze / atmospheric sludge metal) (2011)

In the legend of the White Buffalo Woman the Sioux people of the North American plains explain what material desire may cause you. In this myth, two brave people see a figure approaching them from a distance. The figure turns out to be a beautiful woman clad in white buckskin. One of the two recognizes the sacredness of the woman right away and warns the other not to approach her - in vain. The woman and the daredevil disappear in a white cloud and when the cloud rises into the thin air, only bones are left of the daring brave. The woman leaves the scene and makes her way to the village of these two and presents the village people with a sacred pipe. She also tells them of six other rites that will be made known to the tribe in time. Then she goes away silently, turning first into a red and brown buffalo calf, then into a white buffalo, then finally into a black buffalo.

The fourth buffalo is purple and it takes you on a mind-altering journey over the vast plains of the buffalo. *shels guides you through this quest with their latest eponymous release of Plains Of The Purple Buffalo, which redefines post-rock of today and presents the village of  the world something to desire.

The melancholy trumpet blows its last pieces of air before your departure on the Journey To The Plains. The shift from ethereal calmness to distorted guitars with the vocals going down from an atmospheric wailing to a brutal growling shows promise of a well-produced and intricately crafted album. *shels was capable of these shifts already in the times of Sea Of The Dying Dhow but even the most addicted fanatic has to admit that Plains Of The Purple Buffalo leaves one numbfounded.

The repetence of instrumental compositions never gets a chance to tire you out, even in the lengthy tracks. The title track of the album has been divided into two halves of which the first, shorter one makes you want to close your eyes and float over the plains inside the white cloud, never touching the ground. The second half is a rough take on vocal post-rock and an immense success. Safa's vocals change from clean and wavering echoes into belligerent growls of despair, which keep the track alive while the trumpet and steady drum beat try to force us into a dreamy state of euphoria again. I don't think I have ever heard anything sound as distant as the trumpet in the end of the song and as close to my ears as the atmospheric vocals that crash in out of nowhere.

The buffalo of the plains has been hunted nearly into extinction. Their range used to reach from the peaks of Alaska all the way to the deserts of Mexico. The interlude-like Searching For Zihuatanejo depicts their stready loss to mankind with ambient sounds looming in the air, eventually bursting into a final struggle of distorted guitars and crashing drums. Whereas Vision Quest brings us back inside a veil of peace with Safa's soothing vocals backing up the slow distention of our minds.

An acoustic guitar and mellow vocals introduce us to Butterflies On Luci's Way and you're left staring blankly over the plains with a yearning blue in your eyes. I'm stuck in a feeling of awe during the whole length of this towering track and even when the track halts completely halfway through, I still can't make myself understand fully how great this music filling up my head is. The vocal arrangements blended with the inexorable drums slam a gigantic fist into your unconscious and prepare you for the ending half of the album where your journey over the plains blows forward as a prairie wind. Bastien's Angels and Conqueror slow down the whole album with their firm grasp near the album's end and disrupt the album's direction into complete distortion. With Spirit Horse you embark on an ethereal adventure during the last miles of your musical journey with Driessen's trumpets already calling you home. After you're awake, *shels wraps the album in a shroud of finalization with Leaving The Plains with the sun slowly descending behind your back into the faraway horizon.

Plains Of The Purple Buffalo is almost a myth in itself. The sheer excellence of this album brings tears into my eyes. A piece of art with somber melancholia, serrated distortion and simple euphoria combined. Musical perfection has been reached.

28062011

The Appleseed Cast - Two Conversations (2003)
(indie rock / post-rock)

I started writing this review by stating that I've seen all The Appleseed Cast can perform. I had to erase the sentence when Hello Dearest Love burst into life like a field of tulips on a sunny summer morning. I had been completely feinted by the beginning, which would have started from where their last piece of art left off. The music is easier than before, even catchy at some points. Two Conversations reminds me of The End Of The Ring Wars – only with its windows washed, so you can see outside into all the brightness with which The Appleseed Cast is still able to appeal to people of all ages.

Two Conversations is a wide step into the light rock of which the band has shown some promises before in their earlier production. This isn't the silent Low Level Owl anymore though, neither is it the emotionally bursting The End Of The Ring Wars. This is The Appleseed Cast splashing all their bright colors on an empty, sorrowless canvas. The melodies in songs such as Ice Heavy Brances are captivating but not imprisoning. You're able to let your mind flow either into the music or into somewhere completely else. The songs aren't trying to penetrate through your ears. They're rather just moving you forward you as if you were a sweet lady pushed gently, yet firmly, by a true gentleman.

The lyrics aren't as abstract as they used but Fight Song, for example, doesn't need abstraction. It needs concrete incidents from the real world to suit its imminent flow. This very song is probably the best introduction to the whole band for a person who has never heard of their wonders. It bashes through my words of the melodies of the songs being not imprisoning. When you're listening to Fight Song, you are, indeed, imprisoned in a box of intricate drum beats and falling down the chairs with an expression of awe on your face.

And what the band did on their last album with the changes in tempo, they are also able to do here with Fight Song and Sinking. The only difference is that where in the last album the change in tempo brougth silence, calmness and peace, here the change brings forth distortion, roughened angles while maintaining sonority. The Page turns the music 180 degrees around again with its acoustic take on depression and writer's block.

Turning from an expected disappointment into an unexpected masterpiece, The Appleseed Cast delivered again. Soft as an eiderdown on a field of clover, yet dynamic as an aeroplane soaring through the skies – the expectations are set for Peregrine.

'Cause what I feel inside
I don't want to hide
It's you that got to me
It's what I want to sing
'Cause I've got a dream for us
Running through my mind
Sitting on the beach
Looking at the sea
and we're old and tired
and time has made us smile
as we go on counting things
People in the breeze
We're not the only ones
There's hundreds on the shore
looking at the sea
but it's just you and me
If the day never comes
I sink beneath the tide
Will you still be with me
or disappear?

A Dream For us by The Appleseed Cast

Try Two Conversations 

22062011

dredg - The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion (2009)

(progressive rock / art rock)

With the dawn of their new album, Chuckles and Mr Squeezy, I had to get back into their older production as well. The aforementioned album is hideous and I was in the need of a sanctuary to satisfy my musical expectations from dredg. Their '09 release is, in my opinion, much stronger of a release than they a re given credit for it. The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion tells stories of a desperate lover who is chasing constantly for the love of his life. The feelings are depicted as emotions of trial, triumph, and departure. The love described in the lyrics of the songs seems like the kind of love, which carves your heart slowly with tiny needles. You're looking at the world but you can only see the target of your affection. I think we've all been there once, or twice.

Realizing how lonely you actually are in this world, the feeling that you only want to be home (change) the chase after love, the wait for love, the first disappointments, the feeling that you don't know about your own feelings anymore, the separation, missing your loved one

The Stamps of Origin are short interlude tracks, which balance the album out excellently. dredg has always been intriguing on the instrumental side more than it has been on the lyrical side. The melodies they are able to provide us with seem to be from a foreign country no matter where you're from. Supported by Gavin Hayes' soft, mellow vocals the melodies gain a new level and dredg's music adds attributes of vocal talent to itself. Gathering Pebbles speaks of how the desperate lover is chasing for his love, collecting all the pebbles the loved one leaves, meaning to eventually catch up. It's one of the strongest tracks on the album and with its follow-up, Information, they tower in the middle of album. Information tells of a situation where the lover has caught up but is not yet sure of the emotions of his counterpart.

Saviour shifts the atmosphere into retaliation, revenge and anger. The riffs of Engles turn rougher and drag you through the pain you've been suffering for long enough. From here start the feelings of not knowing what to feel and dredg guides you through these feelings like a ship through a brutal storm. I Don't Know and Mourning This Morning open up the thematics of the album further and close the lid on the musical strength of this album. The guitar work is captivating and Hayes sounds like he's still living the times of Catch Without Arms. The atmosphere can be grasped with bare hands, touched with red lips.

In the end, the lovers fall into the downward spiral of drug use. I had hopes for a love that would last despite all the harsh trials and the effort they put into it, or at least the desperate lover did. I find the lyrics in Quotes to be relieving - they show a promise of something good, safe. Yet, they only mean escapism by drugs. That's somewhere we all haven't been to, not even once. This escape only ends at the edge of a dark abyss, an abyss which you're about to step in.'

dredg at their best, I can't deny it after this album touched me somewhere quite deep.

.it's your one and only chance.

13062011

Blackfield - Welcome To My DNA (2011)

(pop rock / alternative rock)

I finally got around to reviewing this album. I've been reviewing it in my head for quite some time now and I haven't seen myself as matured enough to review it verbally. This was my one of the most expected releases of 2011, and it also turned out to be one of the most controversial releases I've listened to this year. I knew Blackfield wouldn't go wrong with this album but when I saw the name not being Blackfield III, I was already expecting a slight disappointment. And that's what I got.

At first.

Blackfield two previous releases, I and II, are two of my all-time favorite albums. They are so full of deep emotions, unhealed scars and tears that won't that just won't dry, no matter how hard the wind blows. The expectations were unfairly high for Welcome To My DNA. The album is, indeed, different from the previous two but it finally struck a nail in the head of my life. The thematics of the album revolve strongly around three subjects: leaving, way-making, and arriving - or in short, travelling. I'm leaving on a journey of my own in three months and I've come to realize how majority of the songs touch me on a personal level, which is exactly what I was hoping for from a Blackfield album.

Any day can be the last day in your life
So make it an unforgettable time

 There are many single parts in the songs that I can hold close to my heart even after only a few listens and no memories that I would be able to attach to the song. The above, from Rising Of The Tide, I discovered some time ago when I was thinking about fulfilling my dreams. I wrote another quote about the same subject in an earlier blog text: today is the first day of the rest of your life.

Musically the album is much poppier than the previous work of Geffen and Wilson. This can best be seen of Waving, which reflects their lighter touch on this album compared to the others. There are emotions to be dealt with but not every melody has to be written in a dark minor. Yet, with the follow-up track, Far Away, the duo implements Wilson's angelic voice, a quiet guitar and a melody that makes you cry endless, saltless tears.

Wherever I stay, there's a feeling I'm so far away
I got no home town
I never put roots down

Geffen's singing on the album compliments Wilson's quite well in my opinion. People don't give his voice credit because it gets easily overshadowed by Wilson's voice. Geffen sings honestly and where his voice might lack personality, it thrives in conveying the sorrowful emotions. Two excellent singers would not compliment each other, they would start a rivalry ending up in a disaster. That's why Geffen and Wilson work so well together - vocally and instrumentally, of which the latter can be seen in the nearly fully instrumental Blood, which is completely outside Blackfield's box and refreshes the album even more.

On The Plane is should've been the title track of this album in my opinion. The album art reflects to this song. The lyrics reflect to the album art and the general themes of the album. The music is Blackfield. But maybe they intended this song to be something worth discovering.

The rain against the windows, you're waiting on the stairs
You double check the driveway for someone standing there
You calculate the chances of presents on your bed tonight
Daddy's on his way

I was right when I gave this album the chance it needed. Sometimes things need another chance to work out. At first, we seem so eager to make decisions based on our first judgement. We jump into conclusions without hesitating and do what we consider to be right. Sometimes we even do something we consider to be a mistake - yet we define the laws of fate and do it regardless. But can we really know that we're making a mistake? Aren't mistakes supposed to be discovered after we have made them, not before? I encourage you to make mistakes, take risks, and say 'yes' to life. But the mistakes and risks in life are usually the ones you consider to be the safest bet. Avoiding something isn't making a mistake, nor taking a risk - facing it is what strengthens you.

"Everything tells me that I am about to make a wrong decision, but making mistakes is just part of life. What does the world want of me? Does it want me to take no risks, to go back to where I came from because I didn't have the courage to say "yes" to life?" -Paulo Coelho (Eleven Minutes)

Also, say 'yes' to Blackfield's Welcome To My DNA. An incredible entity of music.

.while you were away.

29052011

The Appleseed Cast - Low Level Owl: Volume II (2001)

(post-rock / emotional indie rock)

 

The second volume of Low Level Owl is said to be the magnum opus of The Appleseed Cast - the high-light of their whole production. After consuming the album for multiple times, I concur. Beginning from where the first volume left off with A View Of A Burning City, the second volume begins with a track with the same name, adjoining the two volumes in a heavy combination of light music. The music is almost ethereal in its calmness and you can't help but to be overtaken with the cotton-like melodies that sooth your brains into a meaningless mass while your body drifts away in the warm wind.

The progressive building towards the climax of A Place In Line starts right from the beginning of the song and gives a certain feeling of power to the album. The track also shows how the band is capable of stopping the whole song by turning it in a slow, near-silent melody where the world seems to stand still.

I have absolutely fallen in love with The Appleseed Cast's way of balancing their album out with short, in-between tracks where the music seems to stop. Shaking Hands is an excellent demonstration of this and the whole Low Level Owl album duo becomes so tightly bound together by these short tracks that I can't help but to admire this ability. Rooms and Gardens and Ring Out The Warning Bell turn the sled completely towards the post-rock route of this musical city and the two tracks in their whole length leave you wandering in your mind without ever getting lost. With Sunset Drama King thirding this continuing post-rock tale all the way to The Last Line In Line the music becomes a stream of sounds that feel to move ever on.

By this second volume you're convinced that The Appleseed Cast does not include raw, emotional songs in their albums anymore. The emotive lyrics do remain but the soreness in Crisci's voice is long gone and in this case the only constant, change, is definitely good. Reaction gives a hint of the previous emotionality but doesn't let you enjoy it anymore for more than just two and a half minutes. Confession towers over the whole album with its dark ambience, distant voices of some passers-by on a solemn train station. Its a magnificent way to end such a positively mellow album and reminds me of God Is An Astronaut's ending track to All Is Violent, All Is Bright where Everything Dies stole the whole atmosphere of the album.

All in all, the Low Leve l Owl albums are simply the best The Appleseed Cast can offer but they're not the best way to start listening to the band. They can be fully enjoyed when you have learned what the band is about in their true nature and how these two albums are the cornerstone of their discography.

25052011

Touched.

It's been a long and lonely trip but I'm glad I took it, 'cause it was well worth it, got to read a couple of books and do some research before I reached my verdict, never thought that I was perfect, always thought that I had a purpose, I used to wonder if I'd live to see my first kiss.

The most difficult thing that I did was to recite my own words at a service, realizing that the person I was addressing probably wasn't looking down from Heaven, or cooking up something in Hell's kitchen, or trying to listen in or eves drop from some other dimension, which is self-serving just like this is.

Conveniently religious, on Easter Sunday and on Christmas, the television went from being our baby-sitter to a mistress, technology made it easy for us to stay in touch while keeping our distance. 'Til we just stayed distant and never touched, now all we do is text too much, I don't remember much from my youth, maybe my memory is repressed, or I just spent too much time wondering if I'd live to have sex. Fell in love for the first time in fourth grade, but I didn't have the courage to talk to her, in eight grade I wrote the note and slipped it in somebody else's locker, considered killing myself cause of that, it was a big deal, it was a blown cover, it was over for me, my goose was cooked, stick a fork in me, the jig is up.

Blew my chances, the rest is history, our future was torn asunder, became abundantly clear I was only brought here to suffer. At least I didn't include my name, thankfully I wrote the whole note in code, and it had ten layers of scotch tape safely sealed making it impossible to open, plus it was set to self-destruct, whoever read it probably died laughing, I wonder if they lived long enough to realize what happened.

A year later, I came to understand that wasn't love that I was feeling for her, I had someone else to obsess over, I was older and I was very mature, I forged my times signature, by practicing my parents autograph 'cause I was failing math, disconnected the phone when I thought the teacher would call my home. Checked the mail-box twice a day at the end of the long dirt road, steamed open a couple of envelopes like I was in private detective mode, if you snoop around long enough for something in particular you're guaranteed to find it, for better or worse that's how I learned it's best to just keep some things private.

It was the best of times, it was the end of times...

I was always on deck, I was next in line, an only child with a pen and a pad writing a list of things I could never have, walls in my house were paper thin and every squabble seemed to get deafening, if my memory serves me correctly I made it a point to void and forget some things, probably to keep from being embarrassed, never meant to upset or give grief to my parents, kept my secrets, hid my talents, in my head, never under the mattress.

Therapy couldn't break me, never learned a word that would ensure safety, so I spoke softly, and I tip-toed off and the door to my room was like a big old coffin in the way that it creaked when I closed it shut, anxiety's peaked when I opened up, as everything that I was thinking would be exposed, I still sleep fully clothed.

It was the best of times...

It was beautiful, it was brutal, it was cruel, it was business as usual, Heaven, it was Hell, I used to wonder if I'd live to see twelve. When I did I figured out I was immortal, loved to dance but couldn't make it to the formal, couldn't bare watching my imaginary girlfriend bust a move with any other dudes, Tone Loc was talking about a wild thing, I was still caught up in some child things, scared of a God who couldn't spare the rod, it was clearly a brim-stone and fire thing, pyromaniac, kleptomaniac, couldn't explain my desire to steal that fire, now I add it to my rider, like "please don't please don't throw me in that patch of brier!"

It was the best of times, it was the end of times.

The school councelor was clueless, 'cause I never skipped classes, perfect attendance, imperfect accents, speech impediments they could never really fix, and I faked bad eyesight so I could wear glasses, considered doing something that could cripple me, wanted a wheel-chair, wanted the sympathy, wanted straight teeth so then came braces, four years of head gear helped me change faces.

It was the best of times, it was the end of times.

Now I wonder if I'll live to see marriage, wonder if I'll live long enough to have kids, wonder if I'll live to see my kids have kids, if I do I'm a tell em how it is. So go on and listen when they tell that these are your best years, don't let anyone protect your ears, it's best that you hear what they don't want you to hear, it's better to have pressure from peers than not have peers.

Beer won't give you chest hair, spicy food won't make it curl, when you think you got it all figured out and then everything collapses, trust me kid, it's not the end of the world.

(Best of Times by Sage Francis)