Old Gray – An Autobiography

March 11, 2013 • Broken World Media

I've been keeping my eye on this band for some time now, especially since they've released such a strong sequence of EPs (including their demo), each of which has been better than the last. I admit, I doubted at first whether they were capable of topping Everything I Let Go & the Things I Refuse To, but I have to say that they might have done just that.

Old Gray's sound is something of a combination of old-school screamo with hints of the new Midwest emo scene and a dash of post-rock. It's a good combination, one that's been used to great effect by other bands; however, I think I preferred the style of the older EPs, which had a much larger focus on the post-rock side. An Autobiography is definitely more screamo-focused instead, and is a bit more wild in its sonic approach as the songs whip back and forth from softer sections to full-on skramz spaz-outs. This makes the album feel a bit disjointed and unfocused at times, though often the contrast does work fine.

On the other hand, it's hard not to like the songs regardless. Old Gray is emotive and passionate as ever and many songs are masterfully written, such as the touching intro to "Emily's First Communion" and the calming yet sad sound of tracks like "Show Me How You Self Destruct", with its melancholy violin part and spoken word. Contrast that with plenty of intense and pounding parts like "The Graduate" or the cathartic second half of "I Still Think About Who I Was Last Summer".

While it took a while for me to warm up to An Autobiography in light of their other stuff, I can confidently say that Old Gray is as good as ever and have settled into the album format quite well. Maybe they are even ready to settle in with the rest of the great bands of the emo revival; we'll see.

7

Rituals – Rituals

March 20, 2012 • Replenish Records

Welcome back to another edition of the All Sludge Metal All the Time Review Hour. Today's derivative, generic entry is Arizona band Rituals, performing the typical atmospheric sludge act I've seen time and again. Maybe I'm just desensitized to the better elements of one of my favorite genres, or maybe I'm just grumpy today, but to me this is nothing to write home about.

Expect some long post-rock-based buildups (half the song, in some cases) and huge, heavy, doom-laden riffing for the rest of it. Granted, it's something they do pretty well for what it's worth; the slow tempos and strained vocals create a very despairing atmosphere which works pretty well.

The main issue is that the album is just kind of boring. I'm not saying it's a bad album, but there's absolutely nothing unique going on and not a lot keeping things interesting or worth listening to. The riffs are very repetitive, and each song goes on far too long for its own good. There isn't anything unusual in terms of production—no unusual instrumentation, nothing outside the vocals-bass-drums-two-guitars paradigm—although the existing production is handled pretty well. It's just that there simply aren't any neat, new ideas being explored. And of course while it's possible to make a good album with old ideas, it still has to be interesting. And Rituals isn't.

On the other hand, I bet Rituals would put on a killer live show. This sounds like it'd be great in a small venue, the kind of place where this sort of massive sound does take you pretty far.

5

Anger House – Loss

May 4, 2013 • self-released

The new wave of emo rolls on and on, and the world is all the better for it. Especially because it's growing not just in the twinkly heights of midwest emo; heavier stuff is getting its due as well. Anger House is a band out of Texas playing some old-school Rites of Spring-style emocore, and despite being the sort of stuff that could have easily come out nearly thirty years ago, this stuff still sounds fresh and awesome.

Like any good emocore, Loss's strengths lie in good songwriting that sounds simple at first but has layers of intricateness under the hood. Each track has one or two basic yet well-crafted melodies taking the foreground, with some skillful drumming and rhythm guitars holding it all together. And not one single track is bad, each one has its own memorable riffs, and the EP never gets boring or repetitive. (Okay so maybe it gets a little repetitive, but I'm enjoying it enough that it doesn't matter at all.)

And like I said with Eiskalt I don't have a problem with a band re-treading a well-established style if they can make it good, and Anger House has made emocore more than just good. Here's to hoping they keep the momentum going.

7

Year of No Light – Vampyr

May 7, 2013 • self-released

Man, Year of No Light used to be a pretty awesome band. Nord was cool, as was their split with Rosetta and East of the Wall. But lately, especially with the split with Altar of Plagues, something's gone horribly wrong.

If you were expecting another typical atmospheric sludge metal album here, you'd be wrong, and not really in a good way. Vampyr is instead a disjointed collection of mostly ambient and drone tracks, with the occasional post-rock segment and merely three tracks (and only parts thereof) with any "metal" sensibility to them.

And, okay, that's fine, they're free to produce whatever kind of music they want. But is this good? Heck no. Good ambient-drone-albums need purpose; they need drive; they need a sense of cohesion. This album has none of those things. Almost every track is uniformly dull and lifeless; some tracks, like "Ombres", play up a bit of tension but then fall flat at the end when no payoff actually arrives. On the whole, though, it's perfectly inoffensive; so as background music it works all right, except for the occasional mood whiplash caused by the short songs blazing past.

So, Year of No Light, next time you're thinking about putting out seventy-two mintues (ugh) of music, make sure it's something actually thought-out and composed, not a bunch of half-baked ideas and sketches. Something interesting, regardless of genre. You might be perfectly capable of making a good ambient drone album, but this isn't it.

3

Pig Heart Transplant – Land of Marred Normalcy

2007 • What We Do Is Secret

The modern underground tape scene is so interesting that you could spend lifetimes writing a blog that covers nothing else. The diversity that comes out of it in just one genre is pretty impressive.

Land of Marred Normalcy is a short delve into layers of lo-fi noise, a stripped-down and very dirty approach to the genre; it sounds mostly like a de-tuned bass guitar sent through about a thousand distortion pedals with the occasional vocal screams or microphone noise (also distorted, of course) played over top.

Whether it's "good" or not is obviously up for debate, but there's definitely something to be said for the incredibly tense (and a bit frightening) "Compound People", with its dissonant screeches contrasted with slower, doomier noise rhythms. The effect is very unsettling, a feeling that lingers over the whole EP. But the creepiness really comes into full force during the second half, when the bass distortion gives way to isolated, high-pitched feedback and clinking noises. It's hard to listen to this track (especially with headphones) due to it being almost physically painful, but at the same time it's a little engrossing.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend Land of Marred Normalcy—it's not something with a lot of replay value—but it's definitely an interesting release if nothing else. Definitely not one for noise/avant-garde amateurs, though.

5

No preview today, but you can grab this from the Internet Archive.