Author Archives: Andrew Duncan
Bereft – Leichenhaus (The End Records)
Bereft
Leichenhaus
The End Records
Links:
Holy feedback Batman, sludgecore has returned in the form of Bereft and doom hasn’t felt more celebratory.
This Los Angeles band closed the blinds and felt the icy Nordic metal seep through their influential veins only to bleed out guitar power of pure muscle. Slow and low is how they go and Leichenhaus is the result of a supergroup of sorts. First, a band family tree:
Sacha Dunable also plays in Intronaut and Graviton.
Derek Donley also plays in National Sunday Law and Graviton.
Charles Elliott also plays in Abysmal Dawn.
Derek Rydquist was the vocalist for The Faceless.
Leichenhaus is the group’s debut and what a punch in the face it is. What can be coined as the anti-Abscess, the band opens with amplifier connector feedback broken with the thunderous pounding of one chord after the other. Add pure guitar feedback and screeching to cloud your mind and “Corpse Flower” has you spiraling into the back of your mind. With eyes rolled back, this might be the best display of metal you will hear in the first quarter of the 21st Century.
And if that isn’t painful enough, the feedback comes at you like a tsunami. You expect it to be a transition to something fast and furious, but don’t expect “Mentality of the Inanimate” to be like that. The band moves like molasses just to make sure you feel every guttural cry from Rydquist’s raspy vocals being shredded up, spit out, and re-swallowed into a word.
The song ends as notes are stretched out into infinity and held there. It almost serves an ambient purpose as your mantra plays tricks on you and Berefts’ hellish demeanor becomes meditative.
Each song transcends into the other, all fighting for dominance. “Withered Efflorescence” shimmers from the copper of guitar strings ringing out, begging for adventure. And then the hammer drops, and I feel like I’m 16 all over again pounding my head to the deepest sludge metal that opens the earth and sucks you in. By the bridge, you realize, this is an epic journey into the abyss and creates a soundtrack to the end of days.
Leichenhaus (German for morgue or mortuary), takes the concept of metaphysics and through their music turns it all inside out. These are true tales from the darkside. For that, I raise two fingers to the sky and a big hell yes!
Wooden Wand – Biarwood (Fire Records)
Wooden Wand
Briarwood
Fire Records
Links:
I often listen to Q95, the classic rock radio station in the city. I do so dominantly on my drive to and from work when the iPod is not charged or I forget to stock the vehicle with a CD or two. It’s the only thing a non-XM/Sirius subscriber can do.
Sometimes I don’t mind just turning it on to get my fill of familiarity, but I usually end up regretting my decision. It may still be rock and roll to them, but it’s the same song and dance from the same bands that’s been churning out the same song like the Russian radio station blasting shrill bleeps out into the airwaves. You sit there just hoping to catch an earful of something new. I always thought, if aliens do find our planet and tune into the radio to learn about us, would I want Guns ‘N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child of Mine” or Queen’s “Fat Bottom Girls” to be what they think our taste in pop culture will be (not like they would understand pop culture in the first place)? I find it intriguing and disturbing at the same time the functionality of a classic rock station. Oh, it’s “Stairway to Heaven” AGAIN! Play some Skynard! AGAIN!
What about newer songs? You never hear anything from the Stones’ Steel Wheels album (which has some excellent rock songs) or what about more recent Tom Petty. That dude is still rocking some rich and talented songs. What about giving something new a chance. There are viable and new rock and roll artists out there like Wooden Wand? Why wouldn’t James Jackson Toth’s songs fit in there alongside some Bob Seger or Allmond Brothers?
Wooden Wand is churning out some impressive rock music without forcibly doing so. What’s on Briarwood are chapters filled with gorgeous lyrical imagination and songs that will grow on you right from the start. “Winter in Kentucky” makes a decent first impression, reminiscent of a ‘90s-era Go Betweens. Then you get to “Scorpion Glow” and “Whither Away” and you begin to feel it. I even nodded in appreciation. No one else was around, but I felt compelled to exert some kind of positive reaction, acknowledging the greatness of this album.
“Big Mouth USA” lures you into a state of bliss with its Psych Rock demeanor without getting weird and keeping the core essentials at the forefront. It’s something The Flaming Lips would write, but Wooden Wands to have successfully packaged it.
“Good Time” channels Beggars Banquet or early Neil Young making you appreciate the guitar work all the more. And if it’s not the lyrics that jump out at you, it’s the guitars. They are done so well, I don’t feel like I’ve blatantly appreciated what the guitars do to a song like I have with Thoth’s constructions.
An accentuation to that is the deluxe edition contains the demos of these songs and shows a variation of early ideas versus the finished product. It’s great for any fan, but also is nice to follow the diagram. Even in this raw state, you can’t falter Thoth for laying the groundwork as this is no lo-fi versions. Rough and tumble as they are, it’s all a joy to listen to.
When I get the itch to indulge in some rock, I will be prepared to discard recycled radio play for some Wooden Hands.
Lowlakes – Lowlakes (Self-Released)
Lowlakes
Lowlakes
Self-Released
Links:
The way Lowlakes music drifts like a passing cloud or the one breeze that takes you out of your element and into your self-conscious is the band’s strong point. This group from Australia presents the sounds that are sincere to Aussie indie pop.
This quick four-song jaunt will only give you a taste. That taste makes you realize a slight disconnect between the vocals and music, but a dissonance that fits uniquely with the crying guitars haunting the song in the background or the delicate nature that each instruments display. At first you are not sure if you are going to like this, but more so than a group like Antony and the Johnsons—where they create music like a confessional—Lowlakes EP sucks you in like the day, and by having all of these pieces together, including the vivid lyrics that pose the same viscosity like an artful ‘80s dream pop band, you end up embracing their music like you would a piece of art.
The Jukebox – Onward, Soldiers’ “Cinder Blocks”
There is something to be said about a good, honest rock song. For “Cinder Blocks” expect no gimmickry and no cheap tricks. The band does not spend a lot of time on special effects and more time exploring on exactly what needs to be explored.
What’s that? For Onward, Soldiers, it’s the essence of crafting imaginative lyrics and strong musical representation. The song, inspired by Sean Thomas Gerard’s dream about Medusa, it has all of the leanings to something epic and wild.
What we get is condensed into the three-minute concordance of pure power rock bliss. You may not have much in the way of the song standing out, but you will quickly respect the song for what it is.
It could be Gerard’s East Coast (Pittsburgh) leanings for punchy chords and tight beats, or it could be the band’s North Carolina roots, something that comes out as being relaxed and paced. “Cinder Blocks” proves that both can coincide together if carefully laid out, a style that is fitting with their release Monsters (Winoca Records).
“Cinder Blocks” is a great way to know the band and a nice testament to their growth as musicians.
Doron Sadja – Residuals (Shinkoyo)
Doron Sadja
Residuals
Shinkoyo
Link: Doron Sadja Official Site
When you first tune into Residuals, you have to check and re-check that you are actually playing something. Don’t fret, there is something there, much like the Hindu Creationist story: First comes a thought.
For the listener, the thought of you listening is as affective as you actually listening to something.
Then out of the darkness comes light.
For Doron Sadja, out of the silence comes sound. And that sound builds until something magnificent.
Residuals is built on four parts. If you look at the first part only, you get this escalation of sound. It grows, it expands, it gets louder. This swelling wave of sound finally engulfs you with feedback and power. Through patience, what Doron Sadja creates is intense. By Part II, you experience the sound for all of its resilience. The composition changes like a supernova with incredible sonic power. The sound may dissipate, yet listen closely because it’s important. Sadja builds an ambient soundscape that is absolutely incredible.
What I would have liked to have happened was for Part III was to continue this peak and valley process by progressing forward while exploring new territory. However, Part III becomes disjointed from what you have just heard, starting over as a new vision or perspective. After you get through the subtle shock of re-positioning your mind and your focus back on track, Sadja begins to let things flow again and continues his stance until Part IV builds to a climactic peak.
Where bands like Whitehouse experimented with noise or Lab Report with electronic manipulation, Doron Sadja experiments with the movement of sound, and to me what he does is like a tsunami that many sound experimentalists fail to successfully create.
