Monday, February 28, 2011

Mail Call!

First I would like to apologize for the lack of posting last week. I was in Mexico for reading week.

I got back last night to a package slip from the post office. So today I was off to pick up my vinyl.

I do love Robot Empire. They have great stuff and while the shipping may be a little slow they throw in an extra album for free.

The first album that excited the hell out of me was the four way international split between Beau Navire (America) , Carrion Spring (American), Te Llorian Un Puto Rio (for some reason I can't find exactly where these guys are from but it's somewhere in  South America I'm betting) , & The Discord Of A Forgotten Sketch (Canada). It is 8" clear vinyl and is limited to 500. Robotic Empire still has three in stock and it's only 6.99 for 4 awesome bands.

This is my first piece of vinyl by a Canadian band. I'm not a nationalist but that excites me just a little bit.

The music is all really intense screamo stuff, rapidly transitioning from moments of beauty to moments of utter heaviness and chaos.  Though in this particular brand of screamo there aren't really moments of melodic beauty just some relative calm before the storm. A lot of this stuff could easily pass for hardcore if wasn't for the slightly lighter parts.

The best song on the album is clearly Red Beard Rides Again by Carrion Spring.  At over 4 minutes it's the longest track and refuses to crumble under it's own massive weight. The song will consume you and that will be fine.



Te Lloraría Un Puto Río's songs are good and the lyrics are in spanish which makes the screaming all that much more unintelligble. Suprisingly catchy for music designed to smash your face in.



The Discord Of A Forgotten Sketch are rather cool, there aren't as many explosions, mainly some slight but significant changes in tempo. La Deux Part Deux keeps up a thundering, thumping beat before a vocal breakdown and a an almost jazzy guitar solo.



Beau Navire was the band I was most interested in going in to this album I think in large part because they apparently share members with Loma Prieta who pose major questions for me. Unfortunately it seems like their songs are the most underwhelming. These Waves starts out with the almost cliche of a hoarse screaming voice and a melodic picked pattern on the guitar that give way to raging energy laced with quick melodies.



The other piece of wax is a split from 2007 between two American bands, Monarcs from Miami Florida and Thank God from Colombia South Carolina. It's

Monarcs continue to do their own sludgy screamo thing. They're the only band I know that mixes those two genres and they always have innovative and interesting songs structures. Dropout Kallisti is one of those songs that just grabs your ears the minutes the stop and start riff starts hammering away and doesn't let up for a second. (sorry bout the rapidshare link)



Thank God are a lot more frantic, reaching almost to what is perhaps jokingly called emo violence. There is some meloody hidden in there but it takes a while to find it. Not quite as a gripping as Monarcs but good in it's own way.


I do love getting things in the mail.

Robotic Empire is so cool they even sent me a free copy of Ultar Dolphin's Mar. I heard Alien Baby last year and it thoroughly perplexed me while it rocked out. Looking forward to it