Music Reviews Pt. 1-Periphery, Marissa Nadler, St. Vincent · 7:07pm Mar 29th, 2014
Hey guys and gals, trying something new here... people who might have been following me for a bit know I'm a big music nut. I like listening to, playing it, talking about it, and even writing about it. And since my fic-writing is going super-super slow, I was looking for a way to flex those writerly muscles while I wait for my muses to wake the hell up. So, I'm going to try to post reviews of fairly recent records here, approximately whenever I feel like it/am able to. Dunno if anyone will get anything out of this besides me, but I hope so! Anyway, enjoy and let me know what you think.
Oh and I'm generally only going to talk about stuff I actually LIKE... Unless I find something that's just bad on an epic, awesome scale. Because I kind of like that too, in a strange way.
Periphery-Clear
Ah, Djent, the subgenre that for a lot of troo Metal fans is already on it's way to supplanting Deathcore as the one they most love to hate. Not totally without reason, mind- a lot of it is mindless noodling and Meshuggah-worship. Periphery, though... they've really been onto something. Their previous album has done nothing but grow on me ever since I first heard heard it, combining the prerequisite chug-heavy seven and eight string guitar attack (and three of those, no less,) with a surprising sense of melody and tunefulness, winning the Djent game by playing a different game altogether. Which is why I was so excited for the followup record, Juggernaut. And which is why I was so disappointed when they announced it had been delayed. But in compensation, the Maryland-based band gave us this EP, which contains one song written and produced by each member of this multi-talented crew, along with an 'Overture' piece at the start that is echoed in each song at some point or another. So, it's rather like the old KISS solo LP's, except that they sucked and this doesn't. Some of the directions here are a little surprising (vocalist Spencer Sotelo's electronica-influenced track, "The Parade of Ashes," while a lot of fun, may bring back some memories of that old Orgy album you're ashamed to admit you once owned) but when it all comes together like it does on drummer Matt Halpern's "Feed the Ground" and guitarist Mark Holcomb's "Pale Aura" this crazy Prog-Metal stylistic stew tastes pretty good, I'd say.
Marissa Nadler-July
A new discovery for yours truly, this Bostonian mistress of eerie Indie-Goth-Folk came to my attention for having appeared as a guest on albums by Black Metal acts Xasthur and Locrian. However what we have here is proof that heavy comes in more flavors than acrid and metallic. Don't let the summer-y title of this set deceive you, the music here is gorgeous and compelling, but deeply unsettling and at times downright chilling. Nadler's often multi-tracked vocals seem to circle and hover around the listener like some lovely, lonely specter that one might encounter on the darkest of nights, spinning tales of loss and regret for you ornamented by sparse backing instrumentation and Nadler's own chiming acoustic guitar. The beauty of that siren-like voice makes those stories as much temptations as warnings-It's difficult to listen to "Dead City Emily" or "Anyone Else" and not be compelled to follow her into whatever sort of oblivion might await us.
St. Vincent-St. Vincent
Making this a self-titled release was absolutely the correct move for the Annie Clark, a.k.a. St. Vincent. The quirky art-noise-pop on this album is entirely too distinctive, too singular, too damn weird to be appropriately reflected by anything else. It's hard to believe that with all the noisy, almost cheese-y sounding synthesizer loops and electronic bleeps and warbles, this is the work of a woman who was once a guitar-hero-in-training at the famous Berklee College of Music, or that she once played bass in an Iron Maiden covers band (as if I needed another reason to love her.) Then she'll suddenly rip off a jagged-textured barrage of riffage like the one at the end of "Rattlesnake" and one needs no further reminders. What's really admirable here is the way St. Vincent harnesses that fire-breathing guitar work, the abrasive noise, her somehow compellingly awkward vocal arrangements and oft-times bizarre lyrics to serve an undeniably catchy sense of pop songcraft, leading to such earworms as "Birth in Reverse" and "Digital Witness." It's strange, a little offbeat, and completely addictive. A firm statement from a vastly talented artist.
That's all for now. Anything you think I should be listening to? Let me know in the comments.
-Doc