Okay, so the only thing I know about this band is that they are Irish. I’ve not heard anything by them before so we’ll have to see whether that’s a good or bad thing for the purpose of this review.
If you’ve read anything else I’ve written you’ll notice I don’t like to use genres as a simple way of describing a band. For a start, most of them are too simplistic but also I don’t understand half of them.
You’re either a metal band or you’re not.
Altar of Plagues are a metal band. The guitars are for the most part grungy and noisy, the drums are often ferocious and the vocals are…well, the human equivalent of grungy, noisy and ferocious.
First track “Neptune is Dead” lasts, good grief, over 18 minutes long. It starts off with some atmospheric guitar then kicks off with some frantic drumming and shouting and riffing. I wonder if this if this is Altar of Plagues’ MO. Halfway through we move into a less ferocious phase. There’s not a great deal of light and shade as such but to be fair its not unenjoyable. What this band seem be doing is creating a landscape, an atmosphere of uneasiness, of darkness, and I found it pretty agreeable. Its not what I routinely want my metal to be, but sometimes its good to be out of your comfort zone.
“Feather and Bone” features some impressive-sounding ambient guitar before getting pretty crunchy. Its also got an interesting, unsettling quiet passage with some piano and acoustic guitar. This has turned out to be my favourite track on the album although its hard to say what elevates it above the others.
“When the Sun Drowns in the Ocean” begins with some traditional Irish keening (vocal lament) which really establishes the haunting atmosphere. The track is like a soundtrack for a movie you really wouldn’t want to watch on your own.
“All Life Converges to Some Center” closes the album and follows a path now established through the previous three tracks: unsettling, challenging, bold. And the guitars are terrific. Altar of Plagues seem to know the path they want to be on and are striking out admirably.
After a couple of plays I have now gone on the web to try and find some context for Altar of Plagues and the other band that keeps cropping up is Wolves in the Throne Room. I don’t know anything about them either but listening to some tracks on YouTube I can recognise that Altar Of Plagues are somewhere in the same ballpark.
For the purpose of this review I’ve now listened to Mammal more than half a dozen times and its getting better every time I play it.
Go immerse yourself…but don’t play the album in the dark, on your own.
Which, of course, means do.
Sunday, 1 May 2011
Review of Everyone Into Position by Oceansize
Writing a review for an album that came out six years ago is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.
Instead of listening to each track and jotting down some notes about odd time signatures, explosive guitars, tender vocals and layers upon layers upon layers, I am just sitting back with my eyes closed soaking it all in and marvelling – for the umpteenth time – at how fantastic Oceansize are.
Were. Still can’t get used to that.
I mean, if I tell you that track four ‘Music for a Nurse’ starts with guitar using a delay effect, how can that possibly convey the utterly mesmeric quality of it and how beautiful the entire 8 minutes of the track are?
If I say that track three ‘A Homage to a Shame’ explodes from the speakers / headphones in a fury of guitars and off-kilter beats does that in any way describe how totally thrilling it is? No surprise that this track has been one of the high points of the live set ever since.
And as for the closing track, ‘Ornament/The Last Wrongs’…I’m not sure any words can do justice to its grandeur. As it turns out, it was this track that they closed with when I saw them last year, so it is this track that will be the last track I see Oceansize ever play live. Which is fitting.
Released in 2005 Everyone Into Position was Oceansize’s second album and shows the band becoming even more adventurous and ambitious. There’s also some commercial success with fourth track ‘Meredith’ being used in the TV show The O.C. and the aforementioned ‘Music for a Nurse’ used in an O2 advert for a while. I still recall the first time I realised I was hearing Oceansize on the telly. My first thought was, I hope they are getting paid enough to guarantee a third album.
Lyrically the album is as impenetrable as a lot of modern rock lyrics but that could just be me being a bit dim. And, after all, when have rock fans ever worried about lyrics. With the exception of Rush, of course.
I don’t need to detail every track. I’ve mentioned some highlights but truth be told, Everyone into Position is pure Oceansize all the way through and probably the one you’d play to a mate to try and get them into the band.
Instead of listening to each track and jotting down some notes about odd time signatures, explosive guitars, tender vocals and layers upon layers upon layers, I am just sitting back with my eyes closed soaking it all in and marvelling – for the umpteenth time – at how fantastic Oceansize are.
Were. Still can’t get used to that.
I mean, if I tell you that track four ‘Music for a Nurse’ starts with guitar using a delay effect, how can that possibly convey the utterly mesmeric quality of it and how beautiful the entire 8 minutes of the track are?
If I say that track three ‘A Homage to a Shame’ explodes from the speakers / headphones in a fury of guitars and off-kilter beats does that in any way describe how totally thrilling it is? No surprise that this track has been one of the high points of the live set ever since.
And as for the closing track, ‘Ornament/The Last Wrongs’…I’m not sure any words can do justice to its grandeur. As it turns out, it was this track that they closed with when I saw them last year, so it is this track that will be the last track I see Oceansize ever play live. Which is fitting.
Released in 2005 Everyone Into Position was Oceansize’s second album and shows the band becoming even more adventurous and ambitious. There’s also some commercial success with fourth track ‘Meredith’ being used in the TV show The O.C. and the aforementioned ‘Music for a Nurse’ used in an O2 advert for a while. I still recall the first time I realised I was hearing Oceansize on the telly. My first thought was, I hope they are getting paid enough to guarantee a third album.
Lyrically the album is as impenetrable as a lot of modern rock lyrics but that could just be me being a bit dim. And, after all, when have rock fans ever worried about lyrics. With the exception of Rush, of course.
I don’t need to detail every track. I’ve mentioned some highlights but truth be told, Everyone into Position is pure Oceansize all the way through and probably the one you’d play to a mate to try and get them into the band.
Friday, 22 April 2011
Review of Effloresce by Oceansize
This is how I got into Oceansize:
I was flicking TV channels when I stopped on VH-1 or something similar. A video was playing. The drums were choppy and the guitars crunchy. I watched until the end but that was no more than 45 seconds. The title and artist came up. ‘Catalyst’ by Oceansize.
Meant nothing to me, but instead of shrugging and moving on there had been something in those 45 seconds that made me immediately get on the computer where I discovered the band was from Manchester and the track was from an album called Effloresce, which had come out the year before.
I called a friend who worked in a record shop and asked if he had a copy. He did and he said he’d pop one in the post. The following day Effloresce arrived.
My life changed.
After the initial play, my first thought was Tool meets Radiohead. Tool for the noisy bits and odd time signatures and Radiohead for the understated passages.
By the second play of Effloresce it was obvious that that description barely scratched the surface of what was actually a bold, ambitious, dense, heavy, tender, teasing, thrilling album. And that Oceansize were a bit special.
Second track ‘Catalyst’, where this all began, starts with broody, crunchy guitars that you hope presage a monster riff…and boy do they. Then the guitars drop out and tender, crooning vocals make an appearance before another build up, another drop out, always keeping you interested, always fooling you about where the track will go next.
Fourth track ‘Massive Bereavement’, a second shy of ten minutes, trips along merrily for the first half then explodes into a frenzy of tormented vocals and furious guitars before the last minute or so is just a glorious riff-fest building to an abrupt, dramatic climax.
Bear in mind this was Oceansize’s debut album. But instead of merely showing promise or potential Mike Vennart (vocals/guitar), Steve Durose (guitar/vocals), Gambler (guitar), Jon Ellis (bass), and Mark Heron (drums) gave us a band already fully in control of its destiny, brimming with self-belief and confident in its desire to push rock into fascinating places.
Some of this must come from having such a magnificent drummer as Heron, whose skilful and creative playing underpins everything Oceansize do, both when they are blowing out your speakers and whispering softly into your headphones, both of which they do brilliantly.
Gentle, sometimes quirky, passages punctuate the album, creating a seamless flow of music and making you aware that the running order, an often under-appreciated aspect of the whole listening to an album experience, is absolutely perfect, complementing the light and shade of all the twelve tracks as well as within individual tracks themselves.
Amputee shows Oceansize’s effortless grasp of dymanics as well as capacity to rock out and quickly became a live favourite while the album finishes with three tracks, all over eight minutes, that leave you slumped in your seat, speechless at Oceansize’s genius.
Its maybe not as immediate as later albums but that’s no bad thing. Effloresce’s layers upon layers mean it requires a lot of plays to take in and fully appreciate everything that’s going on.
You feel Oceansize could be capable of writing a soundtrack for the fiercest, action-packed Hollywood blockbuster or for the most subtle, understated of movies. A soundtrack for life itself.
At various points throughout Effloresce it feels like Oceansize already has.
I was flicking TV channels when I stopped on VH-1 or something similar. A video was playing. The drums were choppy and the guitars crunchy. I watched until the end but that was no more than 45 seconds. The title and artist came up. ‘Catalyst’ by Oceansize.
Meant nothing to me, but instead of shrugging and moving on there had been something in those 45 seconds that made me immediately get on the computer where I discovered the band was from Manchester and the track was from an album called Effloresce, which had come out the year before.
I called a friend who worked in a record shop and asked if he had a copy. He did and he said he’d pop one in the post. The following day Effloresce arrived.
My life changed.
After the initial play, my first thought was Tool meets Radiohead. Tool for the noisy bits and odd time signatures and Radiohead for the understated passages.
By the second play of Effloresce it was obvious that that description barely scratched the surface of what was actually a bold, ambitious, dense, heavy, tender, teasing, thrilling album. And that Oceansize were a bit special.
Second track ‘Catalyst’, where this all began, starts with broody, crunchy guitars that you hope presage a monster riff…and boy do they. Then the guitars drop out and tender, crooning vocals make an appearance before another build up, another drop out, always keeping you interested, always fooling you about where the track will go next.
Fourth track ‘Massive Bereavement’, a second shy of ten minutes, trips along merrily for the first half then explodes into a frenzy of tormented vocals and furious guitars before the last minute or so is just a glorious riff-fest building to an abrupt, dramatic climax.
Bear in mind this was Oceansize’s debut album. But instead of merely showing promise or potential Mike Vennart (vocals/guitar), Steve Durose (guitar/vocals), Gambler (guitar), Jon Ellis (bass), and Mark Heron (drums) gave us a band already fully in control of its destiny, brimming with self-belief and confident in its desire to push rock into fascinating places.
Some of this must come from having such a magnificent drummer as Heron, whose skilful and creative playing underpins everything Oceansize do, both when they are blowing out your speakers and whispering softly into your headphones, both of which they do brilliantly.
Gentle, sometimes quirky, passages punctuate the album, creating a seamless flow of music and making you aware that the running order, an often under-appreciated aspect of the whole listening to an album experience, is absolutely perfect, complementing the light and shade of all the twelve tracks as well as within individual tracks themselves.
Amputee shows Oceansize’s effortless grasp of dymanics as well as capacity to rock out and quickly became a live favourite while the album finishes with three tracks, all over eight minutes, that leave you slumped in your seat, speechless at Oceansize’s genius.
Its maybe not as immediate as later albums but that’s no bad thing. Effloresce’s layers upon layers mean it requires a lot of plays to take in and fully appreciate everything that’s going on.
You feel Oceansize could be capable of writing a soundtrack for the fiercest, action-packed Hollywood blockbuster or for the most subtle, understated of movies. A soundtrack for life itself.
At various points throughout Effloresce it feels like Oceansize already has.
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Oh man, I miss Oceansize...
The band which has given me the most pleasure over the past six years is Oceansize, a rock band from Manchester. Over four albums Oceansize has produced the most exhilarating, exciting, glorious rock music and given live performances of such thrilling energy I still had faith in music in a world saturated with autotuned X-factor bilge and happy slappy rap garbage.
Which is why I am so fucked off that Oceansize has split up. Not just disappointed. Honestly fucked off.
Oceansize is - was - something truly special. Oceansize had so many facets - on MySpace the band described itself as Progressive Death Indie - that you didn't know where it was going to go but you knew you were going to follow it to the ends of the Earth.
Oceansize even did some tracks I wasn't that keen on, but that too was part of their genius. In the same way that I think OK Computer is better than The Bends because its high points are so high, so the best bits of Oceansize take it into a world of its own.
Silent/Transparent from Self Preserved While The Bodies Float Up.
Trail of Fire from Frames.
Ornament/The Last Wrongs from Everyone Into Position.
Incredible, life-affirming, heart-pumping rock music.
There is - was - no-one like Oceansize.
We have not been given a reason why Oceansize has split. Which is fair enough. Oceansize don't owe us anything. Sure, I bought all the albums and went to the gigs but I didn't do that so that I would be reimbursed. I did it because listening to Oceansize's music improved the quality of my life. And we all want that, don't we?
And even if there was a reason for the split, would it help? I don't think so...even though part of me really wants to know why.
Maybe one of the problems is that Oceansize didn't realise just how good Oceansize was. Maybe Oceansize don't fully appreciate the impact they have had on a number of rock music fans around the world and splitting up is no big deal. No, that's ridiculous. Even if the five members are glad the band is no more, in the way you are glad to be out of a bad relationship yet still mourn its ending, they couldn't be that flippant about their demise.
Or maybe the opposite is true. Maybe the five members felt - rightly - that they had made the best rock music of the last ten years but fame had still eluded them so what else was there to do but quit? But I'm pretty certain they were not doing it just for the fame. I believe they were doing it to make magnificent music, which they achieved admirably.
Since the announcement a month ago I haven't been able to listen to any of the albums. But then last night I listened to the first one, Effloresce, on headphones and today I've played the other three. Redundancy has its perks.
For the last four weeks I actually told myself that there was no point in listening to Oceansize anymore, seeing as it didn't exist. That is crazy. I still listen to the Beatles and Led Zeppelin. Obviously.
But the thought of listening to Oceansize recently has actually pained me. So I didn't. Now I have. And, of course, am loving the music as much as ever, albeit with a bittersweet taste now that they are no more. And it has encouraged me to write this, which may or may not be a good thing.
Perhaps it is ridiculous to mourn the end of a rock band.
I don't think so. Music, apart from my wife and son, is the most important thing in my world so I am experiencing a genuine sense of loss that there will be no more Oceansize albums, that there will be no more Oceansize gigs to go to.
I'm sure Messrs Vennart, Heron, Hodson, Ingram and Durose are happy with their decision and I trust they will go on to make more great music in their lives.
But it won't be Oceansize. It can't be. And I just can't be happy about that.
Which is why I am so fucked off that Oceansize has split up. Not just disappointed. Honestly fucked off.
Oceansize is - was - something truly special. Oceansize had so many facets - on MySpace the band described itself as Progressive Death Indie - that you didn't know where it was going to go but you knew you were going to follow it to the ends of the Earth.
Oceansize even did some tracks I wasn't that keen on, but that too was part of their genius. In the same way that I think OK Computer is better than The Bends because its high points are so high, so the best bits of Oceansize take it into a world of its own.
Silent/Transparent from Self Preserved While The Bodies Float Up.
Trail of Fire from Frames.
Ornament/The Last Wrongs from Everyone Into Position.
Incredible, life-affirming, heart-pumping rock music.
There is - was - no-one like Oceansize.
We have not been given a reason why Oceansize has split. Which is fair enough. Oceansize don't owe us anything. Sure, I bought all the albums and went to the gigs but I didn't do that so that I would be reimbursed. I did it because listening to Oceansize's music improved the quality of my life. And we all want that, don't we?
And even if there was a reason for the split, would it help? I don't think so...even though part of me really wants to know why.
Maybe one of the problems is that Oceansize didn't realise just how good Oceansize was. Maybe Oceansize don't fully appreciate the impact they have had on a number of rock music fans around the world and splitting up is no big deal. No, that's ridiculous. Even if the five members are glad the band is no more, in the way you are glad to be out of a bad relationship yet still mourn its ending, they couldn't be that flippant about their demise.
Or maybe the opposite is true. Maybe the five members felt - rightly - that they had made the best rock music of the last ten years but fame had still eluded them so what else was there to do but quit? But I'm pretty certain they were not doing it just for the fame. I believe they were doing it to make magnificent music, which they achieved admirably.
Since the announcement a month ago I haven't been able to listen to any of the albums. But then last night I listened to the first one, Effloresce, on headphones and today I've played the other three. Redundancy has its perks.
For the last four weeks I actually told myself that there was no point in listening to Oceansize anymore, seeing as it didn't exist. That is crazy. I still listen to the Beatles and Led Zeppelin. Obviously.
But the thought of listening to Oceansize recently has actually pained me. So I didn't. Now I have. And, of course, am loving the music as much as ever, albeit with a bittersweet taste now that they are no more. And it has encouraged me to write this, which may or may not be a good thing.
Perhaps it is ridiculous to mourn the end of a rock band.
I don't think so. Music, apart from my wife and son, is the most important thing in my world so I am experiencing a genuine sense of loss that there will be no more Oceansize albums, that there will be no more Oceansize gigs to go to.
I'm sure Messrs Vennart, Heron, Hodson, Ingram and Durose are happy with their decision and I trust they will go on to make more great music in their lives.
But it won't be Oceansize. It can't be. And I just can't be happy about that.
Monday, 28 February 2011
In praise of...
In metal circles it seems popular to slag off Metallica for:
I was listening to RTL and MOP on headphones last night. Probably the first time I've listened to them all the way through for two or three years.
Hetfield was still only 20 when RTL came out, Hammett was 21. They produced music that changed metal forever.
Without Ride The Lightning and Master of Puppets there wouldn't have been...well, almost every metal band that has ever been since.
Something to bear in mind.
- "selling out" - no, I don't know what it means either.
- releasing Load and Reload which a lot of fans didn't like - not me, I liked them very much...Bleeding Me off Load is absolutely one of Metallica's finest tracks.
- making the St.Anger album and accompanying movie "Some Kind of Monster".
- the crusade against Napster.
- simply not being as good as they once were.
I was listening to RTL and MOP on headphones last night. Probably the first time I've listened to them all the way through for two or three years.
Hetfield was still only 20 when RTL came out, Hammett was 21. They produced music that changed metal forever.
Without Ride The Lightning and Master of Puppets there wouldn't have been...well, almost every metal band that has ever been since.
Something to bear in mind.
Friday, 25 February 2011
Oceansize are no more
Just heard the news that Oceansize has split up. I know they are just a bunch of guys in a band and that its not the end of the world...but it feels like it.
I got into them six years ago and over the course of four albums and a bunch of gigs they have been quite simply the greatest British rock band and a band that were special to me in a way that only a select group of bands, or possibly a select group of bands, has been.
It would not be appropriate to say that I am inconsolable but this has sure ruined my weekend.
I got into them six years ago and over the course of four albums and a bunch of gigs they have been quite simply the greatest British rock band and a band that were special to me in a way that only a select group of bands, or possibly a select group of bands, has been.
It would not be appropriate to say that I am inconsolable but this has sure ruined my weekend.
Friday, 11 February 2011
In Mourning "Monolith"
Monolith sounds a good metal name, doesn't it? Well, I'm here to tell you that the album Monolith by In Mourning, a Swedish band pretty new to me, is as good a metal album as I have heard since...the last really good metal album I raved about.
If you like Opeth, and what right-thinking person would not, then you will love In Mourning. Its both brutal and beautiful, melodic and monstrous, and epic, without just being Opeth.
What is it about Swedish bands? Opeth, Meshuggah, Soilwork, Amon Amarth et al. And now In Mourning must be added to the list.
Go out and buy...okay, stay in and click a couple of buttons on Amazon...and buy Monolith immediately. Then, like me, you'll have to try and get a copy of their first album Shrouded Divine, which I listened to on we7 and it sounds equally magnificent.
Then all we have to do is convince the band to come and play in the UK.
If you like Opeth, and what right-thinking person would not, then you will love In Mourning. Its both brutal and beautiful, melodic and monstrous, and epic, without just being Opeth.
What is it about Swedish bands? Opeth, Meshuggah, Soilwork, Amon Amarth et al. And now In Mourning must be added to the list.
Go out and buy...okay, stay in and click a couple of buttons on Amazon...and buy Monolith immediately. Then, like me, you'll have to try and get a copy of their first album Shrouded Divine, which I listened to on we7 and it sounds equally magnificent.
Then all we have to do is convince the band to come and play in the UK.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)