FREE MUSIC ... THURSDAY?: 15/01/2015

Yes, Free Music Monday was delayed this week. So instead we have the far less catchy Free Music Thursday to take its place. The outcome however, remains the same. 

Free Music from Bandcamp.

Sometimes not on Mondays!

Got that? Good.

Let's begin. 

Pile - magic isn't real

Pile are a hard band to pigeon hole. Part Screamo, part Hardcore, part Grunge, part Old School Blues Rock and part Daisy era Brand New, the Boston trio manage to scratch many an itch over the course of magic isn’t real. The band take a mature approach to their demons realising that there is as much dark expression in well-crafted melodies and catchy riffs as there is in screaming and aggression; Pile excel at both.

There isn’t exactly a stand out song on magic isn’t real. That doesn’t means it’s a bad album however, (if it was do you really think I’d feature it here?) it is rather an album whose quality is rock solid from beginning to end. Songs are wonderfully crafted whilst remaining simple and easy to listen to, despite the complex mixture Pile’s sound its self represents. The song writing remains captivating and focused rather than the cultured mess such an experiment in blending could become. The band know how to work their sound to the fullest extent moving from heavy screams, to grungy dirges to straight up Hard Rock swagger exactly when the songs require.

Raw and dirty magic isn’t real manages to be unique through its strange mixture of influences. It’s hard to put your finger on but there is something ephemeral about the quality of this album. While listening to it you can pin point influences and genre shifts left right and centre, but none of that matters. You can analyse this album all day and never quite grasp hold of what makes this album so enjoyable. If nothing else it’s incredibly rare to find a band that would be just as at home opening for Foo Fighters as they would be headlining your local punk show. 

Amanda Palmer - Who Killed Amanda Palmer

Self-Proclaimed Piano Slayer and The Dresden Dolls member Amanda Palmer shows the dark side of levity and the shimmering gleam of bleakness in this 2008 release. A Piano focused, Baroque Pop, affair, Who Killed Amanda Palmer, was Palmer’s first solo release, and on a first listen it’s hard to see why these songs weren’t simply used for a The Dresden Dolls album, rumour has it that these tracks were deemed too balladic for the Gothic duo. Enter American Piano Pop figure Ben Folds. Folds’ Pop influence permeates this album, and while that may sound like a criticism, it is far from it. What was once intended to be a Piano bedroom project became a lush and layered album of dark bombast through Fold’s production work.

Who Killed Amada Palmer strikes the contrast between instrumentation and dark thematics to a degree that perhaps even outstrips The Dresden Dolls in same cases. While some tracks synchronise dark instrumentation with even darker lyrics, tracks like Runs in the Family would be a completely different song if the lyrics were written by anyone else.  The upbeat driving piano and grandiose strings do not instantly scream “investigation of depression and family illness” but that is indeed what we find.

Nowhere is this more obvious than on the highly controversial track Oasis, a track accused of making light of rape, religion, and abortion. An accusation possibly based entirely on the contrast the majority of this album consist of, as Palmer stated on her blog:

I suggested that I might be allowed to play it if I just slowed it way down and played it in a minor key. Think about it. If they heard the same lyrics against the backdrop of a very sad and liliting [sic] piano, maybe with some tear-jerking strings thrown in for good measure, would they take issue?

Who Killed Amanda Palmer takes the formula that makes The Dresden Dolls so appealing and filters it through lush pop production of Ben Folds. Songs are hook laden, upbeat, tortured, sonically unique; wryly humorous and incredibly bleak all at the same time.

Sabertooth - Sheol

Following in the mammoth marching footsteps of Trap Them, Nails, Gaza, This Routine is Hell, Baptists and similar heavy as Hell bands, Oklahoma City’s Sabertooth have offered a focused and relentless slice of Metallic Hardcore brutality. Sheol comes in at just over 20 minutes, though about a third of that comes from final track Brother which runs a whopping 7 minutes and 48 seconds. Sabertooth pull no punches and this album is as much of a rollercoaster as the short track lengths imply. Favouring pure aggression over subtly Sheol is the sort of album you punch your friends in the teeth to.

This rock is my home, this rock is an empty grave.

Sabertooth have taken the chaotic barely controlled philosophy of the music through to the production. This album is rife with feedback and the guitar tones sound a little more than similar to the Boss HM2 Pedal tone. A kind of guitar tone used by old Swedeth bands like Dismember and Entombed and more recently by hardcore bands like Trap Them. Sludgy and violent it fits perfectly with the in your face, hatemosh song writing that takes up the majority of the album, that is until we reach Brother, of course.

This near 8 minute track is a huge departure from the rest of the album, it is spacey and experimental, but no less filthy. Whilst you may think “ambience” means peaceful or at least quiet, there is nothing relaxing about the low bubbling of hate made audible that builds on this track from the 3 minute mark. The same point at which any traditional semblance of a song breaks down. The agonised vocals are pushed back and joined my clean, innocent female vocals, it’s an eerie experience and is arguably more frightening and emotional raw than any other aspect of the album.

In short Sabertooth with Sheol have created an intense Hardcore album, which any fan of unstoppably heavy and hateful music is likely to enjoy.

We are all dead inside. Sheol, oh lonely Sheol. My only home.

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.