Free Music.
Every Monday!
Got that? Good.
Let's begin.
Cowards - Rise To Infamy
There are some albums that are difficult to write about intelligently.
Though I don’t mean that in a bad way. It is difficult to write intelligently about
an album like Rise to Infamy, for
example, because it has no interest
in being intelligent itself. That is not Cowards’ intention. What these Parisians would
rather do is tear out your throat and stare into your eyes while you die.
Have I made it clear that this is one violent album yet?
Cold and heartless Cowards
have built this album on a simple Philosophy of aural terrorism. From the off
it’s clear that the Parisians are here to revel in Sludgy Blackened Hardcore,
the slow stomping rhythms of Shame Along Shame acting as the introductory punch
to a 10 track beating. The discordant riffing of Never To Shine shows of the more unhinged side of Cowards. No less aggressive, but
infinitely more insane. The Black Metal influence perhaps comes through best on
Bend The Knee with the huge slab of
bleak atmosphere it forces down the listeners through in the last two minutes. Ultimately
it returns to my original point. Rise to
Infamy is a heavy, brutally angry album. It feeds back as much as it riffs
and doesn’t really give a damn about what you think.
This album could have easily been released on Deathwish Inc.
For a band you may never have heard of Cowards
are every bit as talented and bloodthirsty as Trap Them, Rise and Fall,
The Secret and any other band you
may care to mention that merges Black Metal evil with Hardcore Sludge groove.
Perhaps even more so.
Entropia - Vesper
I feel I should make something clear to all those who
believe Deafheaven were the first
band to mix Shoegaze and Post-Rock with Black Metal.
They weren’t. Not even almost.
I could honestly write an entire article about how much
about that album digs at many Post-Black Metal fans in small, niggling ways.
Though, until I throw away regards for semi-decent journalism and do that, listening
to an album with the quality of Vesper
from Polish then-quartet Entropia is
a good start.
Just in case the small rant relating to Sunbather wasn’t a giveaway, this Post-Black Metal release draws
heavily from Shoegaze, mixing it with Black Metal to make something that is
depressive and bleak, as Black Metal should be, but without sacrificing the
ambience and atmosphere of Shoegaze and Post-Rock. With any Post-prefix style
of Metal, or even Rock, there is a tendency to lose some core of what the style
original was. Few bands manage to keep the intensity and darkness of their original
genre, Alcest, for example, as great
of a band as they are, would not fit the descriptor “intense.” Entropia manage to cling on to these
aspects of Metal, making an album that is both aggressive, heavy, dark and
beautiful all at the same time.
Perhaps the most impressive thing however, is the band’s
ability to mix in Shoegaze and Post-Rock elements without feeling repetitive. Repetition
is core to the Shoegaze sound, as Kerry McCoy, guitarist of that band I’ve
mentioned so much that it’s even starting to annoy me, told d'Addario, it kind
of works on a Kraut Rock principle. That repetition forces the listener to go through
something akin to the 5 stages of grief, but for guitar riffs. Vesper certainly includes repetitive
sections, without them there would be no Shoegaze influence, but somehow, it
never feels repetitive. Call that a wishy-washy bit of analysis if you will,
because it kind of is, but what I’m trying to get at is that this is a great
album. Entropia, with Vesper, masterfully bring together separate elements
to a coherent, wonderfully satisfying whole.
Laminate Pet Animal is the best Psychedelic Indie Pop album I’ve ever heard. Well, to be fair it’s the ONLY Psychedelic Indie Pop album I’ve ever heard, but Snowmine have written an album that makes me wonder if I really have to check out any other bands in the genre; I get the feeling most other efforts would pale in comparison.
Snowmine - Laminate Pet Animal
Laminate Pet Animal is the best Psychedelic Indie Pop album I’ve ever heard. Well, to be fair it’s the ONLY Psychedelic Indie Pop album I’ve ever heard, but Snowmine have written an album that makes me wonder if I really have to check out any other bands in the genre; I get the feeling most other efforts would pale in comparison.
With all members having backgrounds is Classical and Jazz,
it is no surprise that the Brooklyn quintet have the ability to write
incredibly tight songs, nothing is superfluous and nothing seems over the top. While
my focus on the band’s measured approach may put some in mind of a stilted or
endlessly theoretical album with no enjoyment to be found beyond dusty
analysis, this is not the case. While Snowmine
know how to give you exactly enough and no more or less, the sonic pallet of
the band is ever shifting and experimenting. All songs are related, but no
songs sound the same. Songs are exciting and varied and wonderfully detailed without
becoming over-complex; this is certainly a pop album, but a pop album written
by people who have incredible song writing ability.
The one weak spot on Laminate
Pet Animal are the vocals. Thematically the album deals with some
interesting themes, according to an interview with NYC’s The Deli, the album is
centred on the concepts of direction and preservation of comfort. It’s all very
Camus and philosophical, but in
practise, on a pop album, the vocals fall a little flat. They are pleasant enough
and the music would be slightly worse off without them but they just can’t hold
a candle to the wonderfully written instrumentations behind them.
If the other albums on this list are too heavy for you, or
even if they aren’t, Laminate Pet Animal
by Snowmine is a stand out Indie
Pop record that is really worth your time.
Interested in having your band featured on this weekly article? E-mail us at pyramidnoise@gmail.com with the subject line "Free Music Monday" with links to your Bandcamp page.
