Cormorant's Earth Diver

I've developed an increasingly bizarre relationship with Cormorant's music.  

Before I begin I would first like to give a disclaimer: this is as much a written critique of Cormorant's style of music and the direction it's taken than a review of Earth Diver itself.  

With that in mind... 

I think it's safe to say I liked Metazoa from the start.  After a few listens I liked it even more.  After a few more listens I really began to see and understand that it was an incredible album, and somewhere along the way "liked" turned into "loved" and Matazoa climbed its way onto my all time favorite albums list, and there I think it will stay forever.

Dwellings was a little different.  Everything about Dwellings indicated that it should live up to Metazoa.  At the time of its release I think I was so used to Metazoa, and identifying Cormorant only with Metazoa, that I had a hard time letting Dwellings have the impact on me that it should have.  There can be no doubt, Dwellings is brilliant.  It's far more technical than any album needs to be to be good, it's tight and fluid all the way through (the band claimed it's even tighter and more focused than Metazoa), it's as dynamic as all get out, the songwriting and tempo variations are flawless, the riffs are melodic, the overlaying of instrumental melodies are executed with pinpoint accuracy... all signs indicated it was Cormorant.  Unmistakably so.  So I kept waiting for it to impact me the way Matazoa did.

Earth Diver is Dwellings redux.  Not musically.  But it is in terms of the response it's elicited.  I want so badly to appreciate this the way I appreciated Metazoa, to feel those feelings again, to be impacted.  I want it to feel fresh again.  Metazoa was so fresh.  Earth Diver feels burnt.

I think one of the problems I'm having with the music is the overabundance of melody.  There are so many melodies stuck in here, and stuck in there, that the music feels forced.  By forcing in so many melodies at every opportunity maximum emotional potential is trampled upon, and instead of hearing build ups or crescendos we just hear a different melody stuck in where it doesn't belong.  Take the intro to "Solid As A Crow," which, like a lot of Cormorant's intros, is brilliant.  At some point that melody altogether evaporates, and it's never replaced by anything that's as contextually appropriate or emotionally impactful.

"A Sovereign Act" is another example.  If Cormorant had simply taken the theme of the first minute or so of the song, held onto it, expanded on it, built it up, there's no telling what heights the song could've soared to.  As it stands, most all parts of the song are unmemorable and lackluster because nothing is fleshed out.  Even the intro, which is, like the intro of "Solid As A crow," brilliant, is lost and suffers deemphasis in the endless sequence of subsequent riffs and tempos.   

There is no flow.  The songs never lock into a coherent groove.  The riffs don't interlock at all and the songs just blaze on in no discernible direction with no sense of purpose.  The listener is jolted around.  Melodies and riffs cede endlessly into one another in an endless procession of, what amounts audibly to, wasted material and spent creativity. 

The worst consequence of this formulaic approach to songwriting is lack of emotion.  The music isn't inspiring.  I could wrap my head around Metazoa.  It wasn't too much.  Dwellings and Earth Diver are just endless barrages of exhausting cycles of tunes that at times seem dysfunctional and conflated.        

    


 
However, despite Cormorant's approach to writing music, in the way I've described above, there have been noticeable progressions in their sound from album to album.  By this I mean that there have been significant enough differences from album to album to really highlight the direction Cormorant is heading in.  Metazoa was more or less melodic death metal with some folk and black metal influences, Dwellings was progressive blackened folk metal, and Earth Diver is progressive black metal with fewer folk influences.  Sure, Arthur Von Nagel's departure is noticeable, as everyone expected it to be, but Marcus's harsh vocals are just as strong if not stronger and they accompany Cormorant's blackened sound just fine.  There are fewer folk elements on Earth Diver than on Metazoa and Dwellings, which makes the music all the more aggressive and progressive and exhausting.  Earth Diver is a little darker than Cormorant's previous albums

Most good bands, at least the bands we'll remember decades from now, have discographies with traceable directions, and each album can be associated with a progression, a difference, while still being unmistakeably recognizable as an album by that band [insert memorable band].  Cormorant has all the traits of such a band.  But the general feeling I get when listening to Earth Diver is that of, as I've already mentioned, complete exhaustion.  The music tires me out.  It's somehow, despite its intricacy and technicality, still repetitive and vapid.  Their changes in direction have not remedied the issues they face as songsmiths.    

With all that said, I'm positive there are a lot of people out there that would love Earth Diver if they unearthed it.  The music is so technical.  And there are so many avid tech death fans out there.  Cormorant's music could be a bridge gap between fans of a number of different genres.  Cormorant has as much potential as any metal band I've heard.  Their talent and passion is absolutely undeniable and they have enough creative juice to fuel about ten bands, and if they would simply take lass material and do more with it, the sky could be their limit.

Most bands have the opposite problem - not enough creative juice and not enough passion. Most bands struggle to pump out more than a couple memorable melodies per album.  Advice to Cormorant: keep some of that music in your minds pent-up.  Let it flow from you and don't do it by numbers.  Don't let ambition become self-destructive.

Ambition has a way of devouring the once mighty.

Epta Astera's Semper Reformanda (EP)

This is the best Christian recording since Virgin Black's Requiem: Mezzo Forte.  

I don't say that lightly. 

Nor do I particularly like using religion as an adjective for a type of music, since it in no way describes sound.  In the same way that geography doesn't describe sound, but still we see bands throwing "Chilean" or "Balkan" in front of their genres trying as best they can to be more descriptive (and failing).  Finding good "Christian" music is so rare though nowadays it almost needs to be emphasized when something good comes along.   

This music takes influences from Gregorian chant, folk, post-rock and atmospheric post-black metal.  The architecture isn't predictable and tempos vary throughout, changing suddenly and sporadically from quite slow/doomy to aggressive and uptempo (the black metal tempo isn't really a footing).  There are all kinds of instruments on this album, and I don't know what most of them are, but what is really proven here with these instruments is that folk can be worked into about any type of music without sounding gimmicky if done right.  Unfortunately, most bands don't do it right. And the result is... well… gimmicky.

Epta Astera and Falls of Rauros and Skagos and bands of the like are, unfortunately, the exceptions.     

Nevertheless, that makes this avant-garde stuff, when it comes along, all the more sweet.  Ornate and bombastic baroque that even Bach might've found tempestuous. It's a pity these Eastern themes don't show up in music more often.           

To quote Epta Astera's blog, "Black Metal and the Reformation":

Black metal is about individualism. Often times it comes dressed up in vestments of paganism or satanism or misanthropy, but at its core it’s about the freedom of the individual in the face of society (NSBM notwithstanding); a rejection of external norms and authority in pursuit of internal vision.

Black metal's philosophy couldn't be stated more clearly and explicitly. It's important to remember, too.  It's important for black metal bands and listeners not to become a drove - a drove of opposition opposing other droves; that shouldn't be the imprint left by the black metal culture. Rather, it should be a conduit for consciousness, self-examination and internal vision.         

The works of Epta Astera are available for free download here:

http://eptaastera.com/music/

Support the avant-garde and the free expression of music without the limiting effects of coercive institutions. 

 

OM's Adviatic Songs

Adviatic Songs more or less picks up where God is Good left off. This is truly inspirational music. OM is another one of the Giant Squid's or Bloodiest's or SORNE's of the world... the music is just so different it's hard to put into words. Those familiar with OM know their music is classified as "Middle Eastern psychedelic doom metal," or something like that. It's similar in structure to "Tibetan and Byzantine chant," as Wikipedia points out (I'm not familiar with those genres of music so I can't confirm, but it sounds correct enough). "Om" is the Hindi symbol known for the natural vibration of the universe. OM is a very religious inspired band. They've written music that touches on religious and spiritual themes from Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, and Judaism, and in the past they've explored the similarities between these religions. And here we have a picture of John the Baptist himself on the cover of the album - an important figure in many different faiths, especially Christianity - so it seems OM is still using interwoven themes, and on this record they seem to be predominantly Christian and Islamic. The lyrics... I'm going to try to dissect some of them (and the song titles), but they're so oblique they're borderline incomprehensible, kind of like Saturnalia Temple's lyrics except with religious connotations instead of occultist.

"Addis" is in Hindi, and not even in Sanskrit, but in the Pinyin equivalent of Sanskrit (I don't know what the name is for it in Hindi), so we'll skip over this track. I'll just say it opens with clean female chanting and we start to hear Indian tabla drums.

"State of Non-Return" seems to start at the beginning with Adam & Eve's expulsion from Eden which represents the start of man’s journey outside utopia and his induction into knowledge:
Light trickles through the adjunct worlds, the soul galleon prevails
Liberates in wisdom, to complete state of negation
The five roads subsumed by grace emancipates from dream

"Gethsemane" is the name of the garden in Jerusalem which is said in the gospels to be where Jesus and all his disciples (except Judas) spent their final hours before the Crucifixion. It was here where Jesus sweated drops of blood, and came to terms with his fate in conversation with God:
Nocodemus awaits in vigil weeping
The Arahat rising and the healing ghost descends
Lamentations cease enter rarefied light prevails
Nicodemus being the pharisee that showed favor to Jesus.  I'm unsure of the total lyrical relevance to the song title, but Lamentations cease enter rarefied light prevails seems to represent the lifting of anguish off the shoulders of Jesus by God. Jesus did after all pray to God to spare him of the suffering.

"Sinai" is of course where Moses was given the ten commandments. The lyrics from "Echoes," on Paramaecium's last album, read:
As I climb the long pathway of repentance, towards the peak of Sinai in the still dark hours of the morn, I yearn for the daylight which will tame my hesitations.
This more or less summarizes what comes to my mind when I think of Sinai. The mountain represents the end of trepidation, and the enlightenment to come.
Walk Melchizidek shrine descender
At Lebanon - priest ascending
And back toward Lebanon priest ascending
Melchizidek being the king during the Abraham narrative in the Book of Genesis. He must have climbed Sinai.

I don't have a clue what the lyrics in "Haqq-al-yaqin" mean, but I do know when you throw the song title into Google Translate it comes out as "the reality of certainty," which is the third degree of the classical Yaqeen Sufi doctrine. It's a three level hierarchy of human identity, like Maslow's hierarchy of needs, but identity: scholars, gnostics, and lovers. With the most latter being the most important. The Yaqeen (تيقب) phase of Suffism (صفي), and yes I actually typed those in on an Arabic keyboard using my mad Arabic skills, is an ascetic sect of Islam in which one can, as the head of the Shadhiliyah brotherhood basically said, "purify himself from inner filth by excluding his inner being from everyone but God and travel into the presence of the divine." In this phase - the last phase - the liberation cycle is finished. And the reality of certainty is where experience becomes the object of certainty. Knowledge is transferred into experience and vice versa, and it becomes revelatory to the one experiencing it.

As for the sound, I mentioned it's inspirational. That's kind of a disservice. It's hypnotic (in a different way than Black Math Horseman and Giant Squid and bands like that), embellishing, blissful, and transcendental. The use of cellos, flutes and tamburas have become integral parts of OM's sound. There are mantra-like incantations. The bass tone is unlike any other I've ever heard. There are moments on every great album that stand out... moments of not just greatness, but distinguished greatness. The cello/violin outro in "State of Non-Return" is that moment on this album, and one of 2012's finest moments. I can't recommend this album enough, just damn. Listen to it. This band truly brings spirituality to music, and if you let it his album will do absolutely incredible things for you.

Originally written for my 2012 End-of-Year List on MetalSetLists.com

Primordial, Vektor, While Heaven Wept, and Cormorant Concert Review

Primordial, Vektor, While Heaven Wept, and Cormorant on Thursday, September 13, 2012 at Tremont Music Hall in Charlotte, NC

It would be hard to ask for a better four band performance than what I saw last night. These were four bands with different styles, different approaches to music, different influences, and different personalities, but they all meshed together incredibly well. Despite the variance of each performance in regards to the others, and all the contrasting styles of music being played, all these bands seemed to belong with one another.

I'm going to start by saying that there's a review over on Metal Archives for Metazoa entitled "A Life Changing Release." There's one passage that reads:

"This album is what I believe all modern metal bands should strive to create. It is an album that wears its influences proudly, but still forges its seal into the material, all the while creating something truly magical. This is a life changing album, and an effort that makes you excited about a young band's future. I will be watching these guys for the rest of their careers, and if this album is any indication, they will be making some of the best metal in a long time."

This was obviously written before Dwellings came out, and Dwellings sort of stamped a seal of approval on the last sentence of this passage. I still don't know which album I like more, to be honest, or which album is better, but I'm not sure anything will top the first time I really sat down and listened to Metazoa. From the first notes on "Scavengers Feast" to the final acoustic melody on "Voices of the Mountain," it was a very special experience... my best Cormorant moment. And at that point I had virtually no hope Cormarant would ever make it this far east, so I could actually hear them live, and nor did I expect them to, but they did. And so did Vektor. And less than two hours from where I live nonetheless. There was no way I was missing this show. Even though I had to get up early the next morning to give a presentation in state & local politics about Wilkes County funding a water intake project at the dam which will eventually pipe water to the two towns in the county so the towns won't have to draw water out of rivers and spend tons of money running it through water treatment plants, there was no way I was missing this show.

I rode to Charlotte with a friend after she got off work and she got me in for free. She's grown to know the management at Tremont, and they treat her and her guests like royalty. Free drinks, free pizza, free admission... I've been to some venues where I was treated like shit, but this definitely wasn't one of them. She sat back at the bar the entire evening and watched from a distance, too tired to really enjoy the brilliance that was emanating from the stage between 8:30 and 1:00am. I however...

...Walked up to the stage just as Nemesis finished, so I'll have to exclude them from this review, because I didn't see them. Ten minutes after I walked in, or thereabout, Cormorant took the stage. Their set was:

Scavengers Feast
Unearthly Dreamings
Junta

Now, keep in mind all these sets, excepting Primordial's, were abbreviated because Vektor was added to the line-up for this one night. This is a Primordial/While Heaven Wept/Cormorant tour. Vektor intersected them for this one night, so Cormorant definitely played a shorter set than they otherwise would have. But if they had to play three songs, I couldn't be more satisfied with these three. Of anything off Metazoa to hear, Scavengers Feast would be my number one choice. It's the first Cormorant song I ever heard, and it's burned further into the back of my mind than any other Cormorant song. So that's the perfect opener. And if I had to pick one song to hear off Dwellings it would be Unearthly Dreamings (followed closely by Funambulist), so I was completely satisfied with those two. But then Junta . I wasn't expecting Junta, but GOD YES. Awesome song. If I remember right they started it off by tapping some symbols before a bass came in, and eventually it led into the actual song. It was kind of like an improvised intro. Maybe they had a little extra time to play with but couldn't play another song if they wanted to play Junta, so they improvised an intro? No sound sample at the 2:30 mark, and no sound sample during the intro of Unearthly Dreamings, but no biggie. Cormorant nailed it... very emotional music live. The guitar tone was dead on. At times Cormorant plays music you just start swaying to. It hits you down deep, which is the difference between good music and great music. A part of me wishes they could have played longer, but another part of me knows that a longer Cormorant set would've meant no Vektor. But actually...

While Heaven Wept played before Vektor. They played:

Vast Oceans Lachrymose
The Furthest Shore
The Drowning Years
Soulsadness
Vessel

I came to this show to see Cormorant and Vektor. I was unfamiliar with While Heaven Wept and Primordial coming in, but While Heaven Wept was absolutely spectacular. I had no idea... what I've been missing out on all these years. Or maybe they're just this incredible live? I got this set from a friend of theirs who obviously knew the band's material, so I'm fairly confident it's accurate. While Heaven Wept played some of the most trance-inducing stuff I've ever heard live. The Furthest Shore, all fifteen minutes of it, was incredible. That guitar solo that went on and on and on in The Furthest Shore blew my mind. If you're like me and haven't listened to this band, see them live. They won't disappoint you. Now I'm going to take the time to actually listen to their music, and hopefully I'm not let down comparing it to the awesomeness that they are live. Their vocalist embodied everything that's right about music. Heart, passion, emotion, energy, strength... he absolutely killed it. He spent as much time on his knees as his feet. And he's obviously talented too. When I wasn't watching him, my eyes were transfixed on the lead guitarist, who was also a pleasure to watch. After While Heaven Wept, next up was...

Vektor. And they played:

Cosmic Cortex
Black Future
Tetrastructural Minds
Dark Nebula
DNA
Asteroid

Vektor is kind of like Cormorant in that they've put out two full-lengths, both of which are fantastic albums. Both Black Future and Outer Isolation are brilliant. If I had to choose a favorite between the two, it would probably be Outer Isolation, and they played the best two songs off that album last night. Vektor's set was another winning set. It's nice to see bands play what you'd like them to. I've got to say, Vektor brought as much energy live as any band I've ever seen. The energy radiated from the stage throughout their set. I tried to give up headbanging a long time ago, but it's fucking hard when you're standing four feet from Vektor. These guys really brought it, like they always do from what I've heard. Awesome tone/sound, utter mastery of their material, great stage presence, awesome looking equipment (including the sparkling pink drum kit)... when you watch Vektor it's like you're in the early 1980's witnessing the beginning of the thrash movement (not that I would know from experience, but still...), that's what it feels like. It just feels so real. There's no new age thrash band that can do what Vektor did last night. At least not that I know of. All the solos were dead on. Not one second after that choppy guitar part kicked in at the 2:08 mark of Cosmic Cortex a pit erupted. A girl standing right in front of me with her boyfriend looked back at me with bewilderment in her eyes... with a "god, shit just got real quick" kind of look. Cormorant's guitarist was standing right in front of me during the first part of their set too, trying to avoid the madness in the center of the crowd. I can definitely understand the people saying Vektor's giving "performance of the year" type performances on this tour. Again, I wish this show had started about two hours earlier so all these bands could've played more. Around 11:30 or 11:45pm I'm guessing...

Primordial took the stage, and their set:

No Grave Deep Enough
Gods to the Godless
As Rome Burns
Lain with the Wolf
The Golden Spiral
The Mouth of Judas
Heathen Tribes
Bloodied Yet Unbowed
Gallows Hymn
The Coffin Ships
Empire Falls

And I'm not sure about this set. This is what it's been though, and I know their last song was Empire Falls. If anyone knows otherwise, let me know and I'll change it. Like I said, I don't know this band's material at all; I came into the show unfamiliar with them. But like While Heaven Wept, oh can they can perform live. Their lead singer was the best front man of the night. He did everything While Heaven Wept's vocalist did except longer. I was pretty tired by this point, so I watched at least half of Primordial's set with my friend back at the bar. Which was kind of a bummer, but I'd seen the bands I went to see. I got to watch the members of Cormorant, Vektor and While Heaven Wept come out of the backstage room in a single file line, all wearing corpse paint, storm through the crowd to the center of the stage and riot. There was a great atmosphere to this show. All the bands got along really well and supported and talked to each other. The drummer of Vektor was wearing a Cormorant shirt by the end of the evening. Of all the bands, I saw Primordial the least, but I didn't exactly hang around after the show. We left during Empire Falls to beat the crowd out.

*shels' Plains of the Purple Buffalo

The second best album of 2011.  

It should be known that the last time my #1 and #2 albums of the year would've been post-rock records, had I been making these lists, was 2000. That would have been Godspeed You! Black Emperor's Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven and A Silver Mt. Zion's He Has Left Us Alone but Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corner of Our Rooms… The first being a contender for the greatest album of all time and the second being a top 10 album of all time. My #1 and #2 this year aren't close to that caliber, but they're absolutely excellent albums.

Plains of the Purple Buffalo is a massive, mind-altering, journey that shows how far post-rock/metal can branch off if artists are willing to venture past the confines of the conventional second wave post-rock rut. This album isn't characterized or limited by a single formula. It's melodic, it's intense, it's beautiful, it's soft, it's heavy, it's aggressive, it's enthralling, and it succeeds brilliantly in painting a picture much like the album title and cover art suggest. I probably shouldn't juxtapose with Alcest, but the sound of this album gives the impression it was an "inspiration," much in the same sense Neige claimed Écailles De Lune was an inspiration he acquired after experiencing in a dream a vision of a world where music was ethereal and sounded nothing like the music of our world. But this album does give off some of that ethereal ambiance vibe we got with Écailles De Lune, but in a very different way. One way, of which I'm sure, is the brass. Beautiful brass segments are woven in amongst some of the tracks, as are choral arrangements, both of which result in brilliant atmospherics. One might call this record "easy listening." It's like the air conditioning inside your house that greets you after you've been out in the hundred degree heat all day. "Searching For Zihuatanejo," "Vision Quest," and "Butterflies on Lucy's Way," three of the best tracks on the album, are completely therapeutic. While that's true for a lot of this album, it's not true for all of it though. Some parts of this record are just downright difficult to listen to. One example being the opening track, "Journey to the Plains." Others being (parts of) "Crown of Eagle Feathers" and "Bastien's Angels." All are considerably heavy for post-rock songs. 

Plains of the Purple Buffalo on clear purple vinyl, spinning
on my turntable

Few records can remain captivating and stimulating for a complete 75 minutes. Every track here has something different to offer... something different than the track before it or after it. This album is a journey across a land very different than our own. 

HIGHLIGHTS: "Plains of the Purple Buffalo - Part 2," "Searching For Zihuatanejo," "Vision Quest," "Butterflies on Lucy's Way,"



Originally written for my 2011 End-of-Year List on MetalSetLists.com

Loss' Despond

Pain is something dreaded by nearly every human being. We do all we can to avoid it and forget it and remove it from our lives. We do everything possible to exist without it, yet, ultimately, it's something humanity will never rid itself of. Loss' debut embodies the notion that, as Carl Jung would say, pain is ever present, and as much a part of life as the dance of shadow and light, and that it's something we hate, deny, and fear in ourselves. Loss has just chosen to deal with it and express it. To quote the band, "Life isn't worth living 99% of the time," and that's what Loss tries to convey with their music. And they've succeeded to an impressive extent. The despair this band projects is so authentic it's scary. It's the work of musicians who've truly been there. And it's this that makes it so genuine.

Doom metal has grown on me a lot this past year. A large percentage of albums on this list have been doom albums of some sort or another. But this one is truly exceptional. Despond is one of the most emotionally stirring albums of the year, and the only album even close to expressing such deep depression and misanthropy that burns its way to the heart of the psyche. Novembers Doom, Tombs, The Atlas Moth, etc., have all released doom albums hailed by many metal critics as the best of the year. None of those compare to this. In 2004 Loss released a demo, Life Without Hope...Death Without Reason, which spread fast and caused quite a buzz in the underground. Seven years later, Loss debuts their first album, Despond. Two of the tracks on this album are actually re-recordings of two of the tracks on the demo. These include "Conceptual Funeralism Unto the Final Act (of Being)," and "Cut Up, Depressed And Alone."

This album features ultra heavy bass and guitars, and sparse but steady drums. It's slow, it's melodic, it's tormented. The vocals are anguishing. "Silent and Completely Overcome" features guest vocalist Brett Campbell, from Pallbearer (who's set to release a debut in January), who provides the only clean vocals on the album, and man, they're fantastic. This track is my favorite on the album. "I do not remember depression such as this" will echo in your mind long after it's over. This song also features a brief intermittent section of black metal at 6:10 (when the tempo actually peaks above a crawl) before converting back to megadoom at 6:38, when a crushingly heavy and painfully slow riff finishes out the song. Loss doesn't only include elements of death into their doom, but black as well. The atmosphere throughout the whole thing is super intense.

There are piano-led interludes ("Despond"), which add to the gothic sound of the album. "The Irreparable Act" closes the album with clean guitars, synthesizers, and a monologue in a manner that, despite the lack of heaviness, is just as haunting and depressing as the rest of the album. There's strange eerie guitar work (such as what we hear at 0:35 in "An Ill Body Seats my Sinking Sight" and what we hear at 0:03 in "Silent and Completely Overcome"). One of the most impressive aspects of this album is the way each song is distinguishable. Each song is recognizable. You can tell one song from another. There's very little "meandering," which just isn't the case with 95% of funeral doom. Creating a funeral doom album that's a truly memorable complete body of work isn't an easy task. Loss has done it. This is the metal album of the year. 

HIGHLIGHTS: "Open Veins to a Curtain Closed," "Cut up Depressed and Alone," "Conceptual Funeralism Unto The Final Act (Of Being)," "Silent and Completely Overcome,"
"The Irreparable Act"

The band stated in an interview that they won't stop writing music until they've created the perfect funeral doom atmosphere. And they made it sound like this album is basically just a preliminary glimpse of what's to come. That aside, I have a hard time believing they'll ever top this record. 


Originally written for my 2011 End-of-Year List on MetalSetLists.com 

The Doobie Brothers Concert Review

The Doobie Brothers concert on Friday, April 29, 2011 at Merlefest in Wilkesboro, NC

Setlist: 

1. Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me)

2. Jesus is Just Alright

3. Dangerous

4. Rockin' Down the Highway

5. Clear as the Driven Snow

6. Nobody

7. Far From Home

8. World Gone Crazy

9. Chateau

10. Takin' it to the Streets

11. Don't Start Me (to) Talkin'

12. Little Betty Pretty One

13. Black Water

14. Long Train Runnin'

Encore:

15. China Grove

16. Without You

17. Listen to the Music

To my dismay, I didn't get to watch this concert, I only got to listen.  I had to work storage from 9:00pm - close, so all I could do was concentrate on the magnificent sound coming from the Watson Stage - electric guitars (beautiful tone), acoustics, saxophone, harmonica, bass, drums, etc.  This band can ROCK.  They're as rockin' a live act as I've ever heard at Merlefest.  They blend their instruments together so well, do these amazing three or four-part vocal harmonies, jam out with prolonged instrumental work, and really get the audience dancing.  They put their energy and their emotions into their music, and the audience's reaction reflects it.  Vocally, they remind me of Crosby, Stills and Nash and The Beatles.  Musically, I think they're more influenced by the rootsy approach - sort of like the Allman Brothers.  I definitely recommend checking these guys out if they come to your town; they don't disappoint.

Explosions in the Sky Concert Review

Explosions in the Sky concert on Sunday, April 3, 2011 at Amos' Southend in Charlotte, NC

The third post-rock show of the year for me.  And it didn't disappoint.  Amos' Southend was packed.  There were as many people there as there were at the Avenged Sevenfold and Black Tide show I went to back in '07, which I didn't expect considering the region's weak post-rock scene.  There are tons of kiddies in the Charlotte area, and neighboring areas, that love that A7X/Carolina Rebellion-type of music (you know tickets for Carolina Rebellion are going for $200-$300 now?), but there aren't a ton of kids that like post-rock.  The crowd really was surprising.  I got the vibe there were a lot of concert virgins there though.  I stood on the balcony to the left of the stage (from the audience's POV), with a bunch of kids who I think were part of a youth group.  There must've been twenty or more of them.  When the opening band, The Octopus Project, said "fuck" on stage, they all looked at each other in puzzlement.  Needless to say, regardless of the venue being packed, it wasn't the most vivacious audience I've ever been apart of.

The Octopus Project was a funky type of post-rock/electronic band.  They weren't mind-numbingly good by any means, but they were entertaining and fun to listen to.  I can see why EITS would choose them as an opener.  The chick in the band played one really weird electronic instrument that made noises according to the frequency she neared and distanced her hands from its motion sensor.  It made a high-pitched whirring noise.  I think the crowd really dug them.  They got about as much applause as Explosions in the Sky did.              

Explosions in the Sky Setlist:

1. Postcard From 1952

2. The Birth and Death of the Day

3. Your Hand in Mine

4. Last Known Surroundings

5. The Only Moment We Were Alone

6. Catastrophe and the Curve

7. Let Me Back In

8. Greet Death

9. Trembling Hands

They played a lot of their new material, which isn't as good as some of their older stuff.  "Postcard From 1952," "Last Known Surroundings," "Let Me Back In," and "Trembling Hands" are all from their 2011 release Take Care, Take Care, Take Care.  I think it's a pretty solid album - not the best I've heard this year - but solid.  Explosions in the Sky isn't going to write a 'bad' album.  But it's pale in comparison to The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place, How Strange, Innocence, All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone, etc…  They did play two songs from The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place, which was nice.  I really really really wanted to hear "First Breath After Coma," but I don't think it'll be on a setlist for this tour.       

Their sound was ace live.  I think the dynamics of what this band does come across beautifully in a dark venue.  They're one of those few bands that I'd actually say sound as good, if not better, live than on a disc.  The guitar tone is crystal clear.  The drumming is very martial in tone.  That is, instead of playing a 4/4 kick heavy drumming style, Hrasky plays more tom and snare - the type of drumming similar to what you'd hear in a marching band.  It helps to push the music during a slower, arpeggio paced song.  When the drum beat speeds up, it's usually when the guitars are going hard and heavy.  This band is centered around their beautiful guitar work though.  Three guitar players, at times, and one bass, interlocking melodies.  They can go loud and aggressive and they can be soft and sensitive.  Like a lot of post-rock bands, many of their songs are crescendo driven.  They build up slowly before reaching a climax.  They are very technically proficient.  They excel in playing and feeding off each other.  Their style makes for a magnificent live performance.


I was so damn hungry during this show though.  I feel like I could've enjoyed it even more if I hadn't have been thinking about eating.  


It's easy to see how this band has become such a massively influential post-rock giant.  They maintain their loyalty to the first wave of post-rock, but stray enough to create their own brand of innovation.  I think they're close to solely responsible for this new wave of post-rock we're hearing these days.  While their brand can't rival the GY!BE's and ASMZ's of the world, it's certainly created it's rightful spot in the genre.  I look forward to seeing what direction it will take in the future.     

Caspian Concert Review

Caspian concert on Wednesday, March 9, 2011 at Snug Harbor in Charlotte, NC


So far this year has been a pleasant surprise for concert goers of my type in the NC region.  3 awesome post-rock concerts have/are hitting the southeast in a 4-week span: Caspian, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and Explosions in the Sky.    On top of that, Rush has launched a second leg of their Time Machine Tour which is hitting the eastern part of the U.S. starting in late March.  All that, combined with a road trip up to Cleveland to see Agalloch, is making for a damn fine start to 2011.  


I went to this show with two buds, neither of whom cared about seeing Caspian (probably because they've never heard of Caspian, and, I'm not sure they're fond of this genre of music), but both of whom were gladly willing to pay the low price of $8 a ticket to ride down to Charlotte with me and make an evening of it.


The venue was one I'd never been to before, called Snug Harbor. It was tiny. I probably could've sprinted the length of the room in about 2 seconds flat. All the employees looked like pirates. Skull & crossbone flags hung all over the place. Regardless of its size, it was a neat atmosphere. I was worried about a low turnout at first. When we walked in there not long after the doors had opened it was deserted. A few pirates stood around and drunk beer, there were the occasional stragglers at the bar (the type of which were obviously oblivious to whatever music was about to be played), and one woman voiced opposition when I demanded the bar tender change the channel from CNN to the Big East basketball tournament. By the time Caspian took the stage though it had filled in. I'm glad; I wanted Caspian's first show in Charlotte to have a decent turnout. Charlotte's never been the place for much of a post-rock scene.



The opening bands were't very impressive. Chiaroscuro was the more impressive of the two, being bland post-rock. Very little sound variance (everything they played had the same structure: start off soft and melodic and quickly turn into something more heavy and less melodic). They weren't bad bad though. Native was much worse. They were a post-hardcore sounding band with screaming vocals and a bunch of young kids playing instruments. Considering their age, the instruments were all right, but the vocals made the band near unlistenable. I tried to drown them out sitting at the bar watching the Marquette vs West Virginia game.




Caspian took the stage around 11:00pm or so, or maybe a tad later.





Caspian Setlist:



1. Of Foam and Wave

2. Malacoda

3. Moksha

4. Quovis

5. Further Up

6. Further In

7. The Raven

8. Sycamore





I was pretty happy with what they played. Obviously, I've never seen them live before so it's not like I had to worry about seeing repeats. Moksha and Sycamore are two of Caspian's best songs, so I was happy with those. I really would've liked to hear Brombie or Concrescence or Loft or Last Rites though. They had a decent variety of material from all their releases. They didn't play an encore, which I thought was a bit strange. The crowd kept yelling for one after Sycamore, but Philip was like "the bass is broken" and "we don't usually play encores," and so they didn't. It would've been amazing to go out on Brombie or Last Rites. Their sound was great. Beautiful guitar tone - especially for the beginning of Sycamore. The tone catered to their softer material. Concrescence would've sounded amazing. I was standing left of the stage right at the front, so it was all in my face. Very emotional show.




The crowd was pretty decent except for one drunk guy up front who kept thrashing around like he was at a Slayer concert.





Overall though, great performance by Caspian.