A while ago I've posted the magnificent EP's Floriculture and Flower Of Void byZero Nowhere.
This one-man Post Rock project from Lublin, Poland is back with the new EP Broken Flowers Of The Void. The previous EP's were a combination of Post Rock with Sludge and Stoner. Now it is just more atmospheric Post Rock with acoustic parts without the Sludge and Stoner elements.
Nevertheless is Broken Flowers Of The Void an impressive EP with outstanding compositions. The highlight of this EP is the eleven minute epic title track Broken Flowers Of The Void. Enjoy!
Zero Nowhere - Broken Flowers Of The Void EP (2012)
Here's my first post after after two months of absence, due to personal issues!
From Tacoma, USA comes the band Sun Eater. This young trio plays Psychedelic Stoner Rock with Post Rock influences. Their same titled debut EP contains three awesome tracks with a main role for the guitar.
The music of Sun Eater is pretty atmospheric and contains a minimum of vocals. An very impressive EP by this new band. Enjoy and support these guys!
Sun Eater is a psychedelic stoner trio from Tacoma, WA. Comprised of three college students between the ages of 19 and 20, Sun Eater is bringing a fresh sound to the psych rock genre with an emphasis on heavy riffs, intense guitar solos and quality. Founded in the Fall of 2011 by Ben Block and Kirby Lochner, they soon picked up Daniel Salas on the drums and the band has been the same ever since. With diverse musical backgrounds between the three members, Sun Eater is sure to turn heads with a strong, new sound. Working hard in the basement for the past six months they are finally ready to release their first debut EP, recorded at the band's home in Washington state. (Their bio)
Bear Baiting from Los Angeles USA is formed by the two bass players Matt and Dennis. These guys play, with addition of some electronic devices, some pretty nice Atmospheric Post Rock.Bear Baiting has just released their same titled EP. It contains six tracks, which are short and compact. So there are no very long drawn-out compositions. This is the strenght of Bear Baiting: Creating short and atmospheric songs. This EP is a great sounding recording and I wonder how these guys stand out on stage. Enjoy!
Bear Baiting was born as the brainchild of bassists Matt Boylan (Cuneiform) and Dennis Valles (Helen 55) in 2008. The two met at a mutual friend's, (National Sunday Law) show at the L.A. Knitting Factory and discussed to possibility of a 2 bass project. Shortly thereafter, the two got together and started writing material. The combination of Boylan's thunderous riffing, plus Valles' diversity of tones, made for interesting music, but the project lacked proper drums. The two contemplated getting a drummer to join the fold, but prospects were limited. Valles decided to program all the drums, rather than finding a drummer, and take a more DIY approach, resulting in a more realized vision for the music. After getting past the learning curve, the songs began to take shape. Multiple sounds and textures combined to form something truly unique. While not as technical as most instrumental artists, Bear Baiting sets out to form more of a soundscape than nonstop riffing.
We're proud of the results of our experiment, and hope you enjoy. (Their bio from Facebook)
Iecava is the third album by the band Khuda from Leeds, UK. This album is a logical sequel to the 2010 album Palingenesia.
This duo presents again an impressive mixture of atmospheric Post Rock and aggressive Noise. The rhythm changes are, like the previous albums, again overwhelming.
Iecava contains eight tracks, which are all stunning. An absolute recommendation! Enjoy!
Khuda are extremely good at making me feel uncomfortable in new and interesting ways. For only two people, Tom Brooke and Steve Myles have done a lot to take the standard post-metal formula and twist some new life into it. And though the result is a bit confusing at first, it’s certainly an interesting and rewarding listen.
The first thing that becomes apparent is the sparseness of the music. While the twain certainly pack a whole lot of music in for a two-person outfit, the amount of space in the music is still immediately noticeable. The sound consists almost entirely of high-end guitars and percussion, and while there are lower parts in the mix, they take on an almost negligible role. This becomes extremely apparent in the band’s dynamics, especially on the forte end. Their climaxing crescendos come off as strained and unpleasing rather than emotional and cathartic. This is a pretty big hurdle when playing in a genre where dynamicism is one of the most prominent features. It’s not that it sounds bad—it merely gives the music an unsettling, almost ethereal quality.
Compounding this sense of uneasiness are the unusual arrangements. While Khuda have scaled back the length of their pieces since 2010’s Palingenesia, this newfound compactness doesn’t mean the music is any less confusing. The pair are still throwing around sudden tempo changes and playing through unusual time signatures like it’s no one’s business. And while they do so with extreme competence, the constant reframing of their music only serves to augment the initial sense of wariness this album presents.
To point at something solid, the percussion half of Khuda has always been an unexpected delight. While I’m not a fan of how the drums are mixed (the snare sounds extremely open and tinny, almost like a neglected tom), Steve Myles plays with an aggressive casualness that sounds extremely fluid and natural. His style of playing is busy yet confident, providing a stunning antithesis to the frequently scaled-back and minimalist guitar work of Tom Brooke. That isn’t to say Brooke can’t shred with the best of them when the piece calls for it; his guitar work can be as psychedelic as if it were 1969. But often he chooses to forgo elaborate guitar lines when a simpler one will suffice, and that constant tension between the frantic drumming and the restrained guitar lines gives the music a severe case of sonic schizophrenia.
After listening to it a few times, the real merit this music is hiding can shine forth. Though Khuda have always been extremely good at creating interesting musical ideas, it is only on Iecava where the music finally reflects that. One thing they’ve learned since Palingenesia is how to write music that doesn’t sound merely like musical ideas strung together without purpose. By sensibly compacting their writing, the pieces finally feel like legitimate songs, and not collections of unrelated ideas.
All in all, there are a lot of good things to be said about Khuda’s latest effort. While there is still certainly room for them to grow, there is no doubt in my mind that this band will bring some more great albums to the table.
The next contribution comes from the Costa Rican band Hongo Fuu.
Hongo Fuu is an one-man band of Félix Arburola. This guy has just released the EP Marshmallow Sleep. For the recording of this EP, Félix has collaborated with several musicians.
The description of Hongo Fuu according to Facebook is Stoner Rock / Spaghetti Western / Experimental / Acid Rock.
What I hear is an EP with a unique sound. There are several elements in the music, such as psychedelic, acoustic and atmospheric parts. All with all a freaky, but very nice EP! Enjoy!
Born 3000 years ago and resurected in 1985 Hongo Fuu, the spawn of an evil male alien and a she-demon, was destined to conquer the world and later destroy it with his powerful chords and devastating riffs… instead he decided to spare the lives of the pathetic human beings and create awesome music in hopes they reach a higher and supreme state of mind… that, plus gummy bears.
From Dublin, Northern Ireland comes the band And So I Watch You From Afar. This Post Rock band has released this majestic full-length debut album in 2009.
There is a lot happened in Dublin over the past decades and this is reflected in the music of And So I Watch You From Afar. This is Post Rock with a quite aggressive appearance. Beside that there are also beautiful atmospheric passages in their music.
This album is absolute a recommended masterpiece with high musical skills. Two songs I want to mention as my favorites are Set Guitars To Kill and If It Ain't Broke... Break It. Enjoy!
That Derry’s finest instrumental rock troupe And So I Watch You From Afar are oh-so-frequently lumped in with the post-rock brigade is not so much unfortunate as it is downright wrong, but it does say something about the genre. In the eyes of all but the seasoned observer, a band doesn’t have to do anything, or sound a particularly way, to be labelled “post-rock”: just not having a vocalist is enough. Now, nothing irks a band more than being pigeon-holed, but it must hurt doubly to be holed in the wrong coop entirely. And with all due respect to post-rock, And So I Watch You From Afar’s music is so far removed from the post-crescendo genre that it warrants screaming from the roof-tops- in fact, that wouldn’t be such a bad idea. The Belfast-based band’s raucous sound is a pithy amalgamation of the ferocity and intensity of DC hardcore and the carefree abandon of arena rock. To point out the obvious contradiction would be to miss the point entirely.
Given the obvious lack of lyrics (apart from an “oi!” here and they odd “hey!” there), the song titles have to be a little more descriptive than they typically are. Opener ‘Set Guitars To Kill’ is a perfect example, kicking the album off with a crunching power chord riff and pulsating reverb-soaked drums that give way to increasingly more chaotic and dissonant exchanges. Likewise, the impeccably-titled ‘TheseRIOTSareJUSTtheBEGINNING’ is frenetically-paced and relentlessly aggressive, while ‘Don’t Waste Time Doing Things You Hate’ sees the band indulge their zanier pleasures: from signature shred-guitar moves rarely heard outside a guitarist’s bedroom to sexy Meters-like funk rhythms and a beer-soaked ‘Hey Jude’-style gang sing-a-long for the last couple of minutes. In truth, there is the odd moment within a song of overt post-rockishness: single ‘A Little Bit Of Solidarity Goes A Long Way’ works the silence-crescendo model to a T. But the overall effect is more comparable to compatriots and frequent touring partners Adebisi Shank, as they’re more likely to lock into a dynamic groove and play off that energy than to tease listeners with the quiet-loud formula.
Not only is And So I Watch You From Afar well-balanced between the band members, it’s also a quality effort from start to finish. It’s always tempting to load the best tracks to the front- and, to be fair, the opening three songs are the most immediate on the album- but the album ends just as strongly as it starts. ‘The Voiceless,’ one of two tracks to re-appear from the group’s debut EP, another track that hints at erupting into an Explosions In The Sky-like cacophonous crescendo, but instead holds off without really sacrificing anything in the way of grandeur. Following that, and finishing the album on a high, is ‘Eat The City, Eat It Whole’ (Pedants’ Corner: that should be a semi-colon). It’s stylistically different from anything else on the album, beginning with some country and blues-tinged motifs before patiently easing into a familiar mathy groove, the type that litters the album and makes it such a wonderful, coherent listen from start to finish.
This is yet another fantastic free download Bandcamp discovery! From Tampere, Finland come the one-man project Consciousness Removal Project by Antti Loponen.
This guy plays impressive Post-Metal with Sludge influences. The album The Last Season is an atmospheric masterpiece. This album contains five amazing tracks that display great musical capabilities.
Antti Loponen had some help with this album of several musicians. Whereby I especially was touched by the violin in the songs Soil Sacrifice and Kyoto.
The Post-Rock genre is in general instrumental music. That is not the case with this project. Antti shows some great vocals, from clean to scream, it sounds awesome.
So The Last Season is for sure a need-to-hear album! Enjoy!
CONSCIOUSNESS REMOVAL PROJECT is a one-man post-metal band from Tampere, Finland. Its only official member Antti Loponen is solely responsible not only for compositions, lyrics and arrangements but also for most instruments and the record production. With the help of a live collective, Consciousness Removal Project has also been able to perform live since 2008.
The music of Consciousness Removal Project has been published on the internet for free since 2004. The style has evolved from guitar-based instrumental rock/ambient towards a post-metallish direction and vocals have been added into the equation. The 2011 album "The Last Season" was also released as a limited-edition CD Digipack.
(Bio from Facebook)
Consciousness Removal Project - The Last Season (2011)
Khuda is a duo from Leeds, UK. I saw these guys perform last week and they made quite an impression. Khuda plays stunnig Instrumental music that shifts from psychedelic and atmospheric Post Rock to aggressive Noise. A strong element of Khuda is the constant changing of rhythms. Their sound reminds me of bands like Red Sparowes, Pelican and Ahkmed.
Khuda has released one EP and two albums. This one is their first album from 2010 called Palingenesia. This album contains six excellent tracks. Enjoy!
It’s taken long enough, but the album finally came out. I spoke to these two (that’s right, there are only two of them) after a show having been local supports for Mouth of the Architect. I asked about an album to buy, and apparently it had been finished for over a year without a label to release it until Field Records (Her Name Is Calla, Maybeshewill) picked them up, and granted a foothold in the current post-genre trend. They were incredible live considering how so much of their music relies on the guitarist’s feet, and whilst Palingenesia certainly doesn’t fall short of this, it sadly doesn’t have quite the same feeling either.
The album begins with ‘Laleh’ and some compulsory ambient noise which sends us into the main theme of the song, a riff layered with another riff with another riff with some chords, but it’s all interesting so it’s nice. The drums are already pretty stunning. Throughout the album, they manage to keep everything somewhat fresh even when the melodic themes become a little stale and similar between songs; I’m not sure they use any more than two keys over the whole album. It’s still less linear than your average post-rock though, as there are surprising transitions all the time, and only having one guitarist can occasionally make the flow more inventive.
The second track, ‘Black Waters’ is testament to this, as mid-way through the song the feel completely changes to explore some fanciful polymetric work as a bridge, but this excitement doesn’t really last. Mid-album leaves much to be desired, sounding much like the other tracks, save for the latter part of track four, one of the highlights of the album with more variations on a blast-beat than is normal. ‘Mescalito’ again becomes something we’ve heard before, what with its 5/4 and its looping; and the final track doesn’t seem quite epic enough.
What’s strange is how, when listened to out of context of the album, all of these songs are pretty damn good; it’s just that when I first played from start-to-finish, I couldn’t help but lose concentration and catch my thoughts drifting away from the music. Within each song there is change and progression and melody and structure, all of which is attractive, yet as an album something doesn’t quite work. Even the freshest of goods become stale and while, as a two piece band, they do an amazing job imitating Russian Circles, that’s exactly the problem; they sound too much like they’re imitating.
Technically brilliant, mixing done well, never anything lost in the blurriness that loops can sometimes bring; by all accounts this band are great, and they deserve a better rating than an album of background metal. So go see them live, enjoy them, buy some merch; just don’t expect anything as novel as that guy who made the electronica album out of insect noises.
From Denver, USA comes the duo Adai. These guys play incredible Sludge/Doom/Metal. Their previous releases are the EP's ...I Carry from 2008 and Felo De Se from 2010. These two EP's are combined in the album We Are All Dead. This album is a garantee for some compelling atmospheric, brutal and heavy tunes. Their sound has some similarities with bands like Isis, Pelican and Neurosis.
It is safe to say that Adai has delivered a real masterpiece with this album! Enjoy!
The Denver duo enlarge their innovative experimental doom metal sound on their latest release, Felo De Se (June 2010) on Cavity Records. Adai are massive on both stage and record. Felo De Se was recorded by Matt Talbott (Hum) and mixed by Kurt Ballou (Converge), and not surprisingly Adai achieve an astounding amount of color (instead of just going for “dark”) while keeping it crushingly heavy. The two friends that comprise the band, Justin Trujilo (drums, samples) and Devin Mendoza (guitars, vox, amps) are hard-working, diligent, focused, and they clearly love what they do.
When you hear the name Maserati, you will probably think of a fancy Italian sports car. Beside that Maserati is also the name of a band from Athens, Georgia, USA. This foursome plays Progressive Instrumental Rock with Post Rock and Space influences. This band has released their first album in 2000 and since that time they've released a couple of Albums, EP's and split albums. This album is called Inventions For The New Season from 2007.
Characteristic for this band are the repetitive guitars and rhythms. The songs on this album exude an atmospheric mood. A major influence for Masarati must be Pink Floyd.
Maserati is a so called Post Rock band, but Inventions For The New Season is an album that goes beyond the Post Rock sound. Judge for yourself! Enjoy!
On Inventions for the New Season, Maserati move simultaneously forward and backward away from their clear associations with the modern post-rock of groups like Tortoise and the Mercury Program and seemingly back in time to the progenitors of prog rock (King Crimson, early Rush) and especially Krautrock (Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream). Their nearest contemporaries may be the prolific yet obscure Finnish outfit Circle, especially their tendencies toward driving guitar/keyboard workouts in the motorik vein, as would befit a band named after the finest of Italian sports cars. These songs hurtle forward at an ever-increasing pace, which they rely on to build intensity rather than the standard quiet-to-loud dynamics of the post-rock genre. Actually, they're not alone in mining this realm of instrumental rock -- they also share with peers the Turing Machine and Ostinato the ability to sound elaborate without actually playing complicated music -- most of the riffs are built on simple, clean guitar figures augmented with chiming and echoing effects and building and expanding in their relentless repetition. Every track here is a stunner, especially the opening "Inventions" and the bass-driven Floyd-ian barnburner "Show Me the Season," culminating in a peak with the tongue-in-cheek nod to the Police's brief foray into progressive rock, knowingly titled "Synchronicity IV."
Zero Nowhere is a one-man Post Rock project from Lublin, Poland. His music sounds in my opinion similar to bands like Pelican and Red Sparowes, but there is more than just that. There are also some Sludge and Stoner influences present in his music.
The atrabilious and dejected atmosphere is in a great way propagated on these EP's. The first EP Floriculture contains six tracks and the second EP Flower Of Void contains one twenty minutes lasting track.
I'm pretty impressed of what this guy has acomplished on his own. These EP's are really great! The highlight for me is the triptych of the Floriculture EP called Portraits (I - Soul Dealer II - Dancing Trees III - The Fog).
When you read the bio below, you will see that this guy is capable of a lot. Enjoy!
So i'm a 21 year old musician from Lublin, Poland. I started making music as Zero Nowhere in 2008. It's a instrumental solo project, all music on these EP's was written & recorded by myself. I have also older EP called "Witchcraft" and a compilation of some of my older songs with some unreleased material called "Whispers Of Shooting Stars" which was released by Dairyola Records. Also Floriculture was released on limited CD-r edition on Kitty On Fire records. My name was taken from an Eyehategod song. I'm playing mix of stoner, psychedelic and sludge music with some drone and experimental elements. My biggest influences are stoner / psychedelic and drone bands like Dead Meadow, Yawning Man, Earth or Electric Wizard as well as sludge bands like Eyehategod or Buzzoven. I play also in some other various projects like a sludge / stoner metal project named Eyes Like Halogen with vocalist of Cerber, psychedelic and experimental band named Flora and my own drone project called Golden Cloud. I'm also planning to make some sludge band in future, as well as release some more experimental psychedelic rock material with vocals under the name Black Sunflowers.
This album was shared with me by Burdt from the band Aver. Thank you for that, Burdt! Aver is a four headed band from Sydney, Australia. According to the band themselves Aver plays Stoner/Space Grunge. Well, I can agree with that description. But it is more than that. The sound of Aver is pretty unique. These guys play very good, so I wonder why this band is still not signed by any record label. This debut album contains eight songs that can be classified as superb. (All of them!) The singer is really striking, his voice has a very distinctive sound. The songs are most of the time heavy and intense, but there's also room for some quiet and atmospheric parts. There is also the presence of didgeridoo and djembe. (The song Acid Rain starts and ends with didgeridoo. Very nice!) The bottomline here is that Aver is an awesome band with an out of the ordinary sound. Go hear it and... Enjoy and support these guys!
Lock up your daughters! because AVER will be at her friend's house party screaming obscenities, hogging the stereo, breaking laws and vomiting in the swimming pool. Having just self-released their first album in April 2011, These unsigned 21-year-olds from Sydney, Australia have started out with a bang. Sounding like a radioactive Mudhoney took acid, smoked meth and played a gig underwater, this is Space/Stoner/Grunge for the thinking man, featuring didgeridoo, djembe and a scream that could strip paint. A style that defies genres. Spacey as shit, Heavy as fuck, No bullshit and No surrender. Get the headphones out for this one. (By Michael Burrill, a local freelance)
This split EP was also sent to me by Valentin and the guys from Bookmaker Records! This split EP contains one song by Henryspenncer and the other song by Among The Bones. I think Henryspenncer doesn't need further introduction here. Among The Bones is just as Henryspenncer an one man band from London, UK. The man behind Among The Bones is Misha Hering and and he is very capable in creating obscure Psychedelic soundscapes. This is a first-rate EP with two artists who have found each other. Enjoy!
This opus is the result of a collaboration between two artists: One English (Among The Bones) the other French (Henryspenncer), both having composed one track for the release. Henryspenncer's "The Amazon" is a vast voyage, as epic as it’s hypnotic and Among The Bones' "Pyramid of Sacrifice", a long and droning tribal ritual, both form two chapters of the same story. A mystical journey through an unexplored and alien jungle. (From Bookmaker Records)
Thanks to Valentin and his friends from Bookmaker Records for sharing his second album! After the album The Shelter Days, the one man band Henryspenncer is back with the new album To The Timeless Valley. It is again a nice journey through landscapes of dark Psychedelic sounds. Valentin excels again on his guitar in various ways. For example, his slide guitar is afresh unsurpassed. Together with the electronic industrial and cosmic sounds in combination with Americana it is a beautiful whole. If you enjoyed the album The Shelter Days, then To The Timeless Valley will not disappoint you. Enjoy!
Henryspenncer's music is marked by the confrontation of psychedelic guitars and industrial percussions, folk sounds and drone atmospheres, coexisting in long progressive compositions. "To The Timeless Valley", Henryspenncer's second album, invites you to get lost in an unseen musical world evocative of large imaginary deserts, beyond time and the world. (From Bookmaker Records)
Thanks to the guys of Marasme for sharing their music again! Marasme is a Spanish band that plays some great Experimental Post/Sludge Metal. A while ago I've posted their EP here.
Now it's time to post their full-length debut album. This album is called Mirroir and it contains seven awesome tracks that are Heavy and Atmospheric. If I have to compare Marasme with something, then it must be Isis. The musicians are playing with great class on this album. The singer is just perfect for this kind of music. So give this excellent album a listen and I'm pretty sure you will like it. Enjoy and support Marasme!
Stangala is a three-piece Stoner Rock band from Quimper, Bretagne. These druids combines their music with Folkish and Psychedelic influences. It has resulted in these two free download recordings. ... Dans Les Bois Stangala is a 33 minute album and Lutun Salvia Delirium is a twenty minute EP. Both are pretty decent recordings with a nice atmosphere and there both sung in French. Take a trip through the woods and enjoy!
The story began in the year of 2007, when 3 modern celtic druids gathered somewhere in the mystical woods of Kemper, France. In order to explore other paths of the space-time continuum and finally reach the land of the korrigans, they used their magical knowledge and begun the preparation of potions with psychedelic powers. Lead under the influence of the great green smoke, rites were inspired by the legacy of the great ancients, such as the mighty Black Sabbath, Iron Butterfly, or the young Queens Of The Stone Age, but also by more local and traditionnal knowledge, of which Brittany, as a Celtic land, is full. First results did not take long to come, and an initiative trip was planned after just a few weeks, thanks to a set of nine songs named "..dans les bois" (translate "..in the woods"). The druids gained some notoriety and assurance and, after several public ceremonies, they released a new book of magic spells called LSD, or the delirium of the Salvia dwarf.
Today, the druids are gathering secretely once again, consuming even more drugs in their cauldrons in order to, eventually, introduce the world to a path towards a whole new dimension... (From MySpace)
These atmospheric tunes were send to me by J.M.A. from the one-man project Bird From The Abyss. Thank you for that! I did posted the first Bird From The Abyss EP some earlier here. If you've taken the time to listen to this EP then you know what to expect: Some damn fine atmospheric and dark experimental sounds with acoustic parts and strange Psychedelic ambiances. The EP III is in line of the previous releases. Enjoy!
Russian Circles is a Post Rock/Metal band from Chigago, U.S.A. Geneva is their third album and it sounds beautiful. Russian Circles is a band that sounds a bit like Red Sparrows and Pelican. Geneva contains seven songs that sound dejected and melancholic with awesome atmospheric soundscapes. Enjoy!
A distant sound lingers, a pounding drum pattern arises. Are you sure they're back? So soon? Yes, they are. Russian Circles are back with _Geneva_, their third album, and it is yet another transcendental musical experience. If you think that instrumental music played by only a guitarist, a bassist and a drummer can be boring, then I pity you for never having listened to this band. There's a lot more to Russian Circles' music than their compounded guitar layering, their driving and rhythmic bass lines and the ever so inventive and intelligent drumming. Their music has an overwhelming ethos that keeps the listener bolted and glued where they are as long as it runs.
Genre freaks, please back off, for this is not an album for your mindless scrutiny. The serene, almost palpable beauty of "Hexed All" and the grandeur of "Fathom" are much more than a futile genre debate. Now I won't go as far as saying that Russian Circles smash genre standards across the wall, but I guess it's safe to say that their music serpentines freely around the borderlines of post-rock and post-metal. "Malko" is arguably the heaviest track on this superb effort, and the ten minute epic "Philos" may in fact be the best Russian Circles song to date. The title track "Geneva" is another gripping track that starts off with a chugging heavy metal riff and then takes us on a trip through layers of sound. The acme of this record for me has to be "When the Mountain Comes to Mohamed", and for a truly mesmerizing experience, try listening to it while calmly staring at an actual mountain.
The sound quality of _Geneva_ doesn't really differ from that of the previous two albums. None of them is overtly polished, which prevents the instruments from sounding electronically processed, yet it's not on the sloppy side of the spectrum so as to put the new listener off. So far, one cannot really pinpoint significant differences in musical direction between all of Russian Circles' albums. They do have a sound of their own and are highly creative within its seemingly invisible boundaries. _Enter_ and _Station_ should be proud of their new baby brother, because together they have formed a formidable amalgamation between post-rock's construction of textured layers of sound with its atmosphere, and metal's powerful aesthetics and copious creative variations.
My favorite Om album will always be Conference Of The Birds. This is their fourth album God Is Good. It's like a fresh start because of the new drummer. This album contains four tracks and the main song is Thebes, a 19 minute atmospheric song with some Oriental influences. God Is Good is a great album. Enjoy!
Breaking up was the best thing Sleep ever did. Sure, they made Jerusalem, a stoner metal masterpiece that was basically an hour of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" riff. But the record was a logical limit-- how much more droning and Sabbath-esque could a band get? When the band split up in the late 1990s, it birthed two behemoths: Guitarist Matt Pike formed High on Fire, while bassist Al Cisneros and drummer Chris Hakius formed Om. High on Fire's mixture of Motörhead and Black Sabbath has found considerable success, and Om's drums-bass-vocals shtick has also garnered a large following. The two bands are as if Sleep separated into its constituent elements: High on Fire continue (and accelerate) Sleep's midrange roar, while Om explore Sleep's mantra-like low end.
Since Om are a duo, Hakius' departure last year caused a stir. His metronomic, cymbal-heavy style was literally half of Om's sound. Many fretted over the choice of Grails' Emil Amos as his replacement. Amos' style is busier, and at first seemed like a poor fit for Om's spareness-- 15-minute head-nodders don't need fills clattering away in the back.
However, Amos has turned out to fit right in. His playing is often Hakius-like, with a ride cymbal ticking away to mark time. "Cremation Ghat I" is more his own, with a relatively uptempo groove and hand claps. With slinky bass lines, the track isn't that far off from the Folk Implosion's "Natural One"; however, as an instrumental around three minutes long, it seems like a throwaway. In general, the album is sequenced awkwardly. The first two tracks have vocals and are around 19 and seven minutes long, respectively. Closing out the album is the instrumental two-part "Cremation Ghat" suite, which is about eight minutes long. It feels more like a coda than a song.
That's too bad, as it's the most interesting section of the record. Not only is the first part more lively than Om's typical lope, but both parts feature tamboura. This is a mixed blessing. On one hand, it adds color to Om's sound. On the other hand, Om did just fine before without additional coloration. Part of the band's appeal has been its ability to utilize its few elements. Additionally, the choice of an Indian instrument to accompany Cisneros' hippy-dippy lyrics ("Descends supine grace of the luminant/ Attunes to access light of celestial form") is too obvious. (The Beatles' dabbling with Indian instrumentation comes to mind.) What was once an implied spirituality, drawn out through trance-like repetition, has become spoon-fed. Perhaps this evolution was inevitable: Like Sleep, Om likely could mine their minimalism only for so long. (By Cosmo Lee at Pitchfork.com)
This is a blog for everyone who's addicted to Stoner Rock. All music I post is uploaded by myself or avialable on some websites! If you don't like your music is posted here, send me an e-mail and I remove it. When you download one of my post, please be kind and leave a comment! If you have a Stoner Rock band and you want your music posted on this blog leave a message below or send an e-mail to: riez.stoner@gmail.com
And boys and girls, don't forget to buy vinyl or other merchandise from these bands!
