This won't exactly follow a "first time's the worst time" format because I've heard over half of the album already, in pieces. For what I haven't heard in recorded format via Diesto's myspace, I've heard live. Instead, this'll look more like an actual review. Semi-professional writing here at Sounds of Sagittarius?! GASP.

To repeat myself and have an intro, Diesto was/is:

- one of the first local (Portland) bands I listened to/liked
- post-torrents/blogs, one of the few bands I've bought from without listening to their album(s) or seeing them live first
- the second or third band I posted to the internet
- responsible for my first take-down notice
- containing the first person I knew other than me who liked Red Fang
- really nice because they sent me High As The Sun to "review"...

High As The Sun is their new album. It's been recorded, but I don't think it's been turned into a consumer product yet as their former record label appears to be dead... Or something like that. Either way, it's not been "released" yet and I'm not sure when it will be. That sucks, but what can you do.

Recorded & Mixed in July & August 2009
Recorded by Adam Pike
Mixed by Alex Newport
Cover art by Sam Ford & Kirk Evans

Tracklist:
1. Beyond The Graves (8:35)
2. All Eyes Upon You (11:06)
3. High As The Sun (6:43)
4. Lowlight (10:40)
5. Waiting For The Fall (10:11)
6. The Longest Day (9:23)

For fans of: Isis, YOB, Baroness, Neurosis, Electric Wizard, current PDX/Northwest metal...

After listening to a few of these songs several times before this week and giving the album a couple of full front-to-end "spins", one thing is obvious about the new album: High As the Sun is far more introverted than Isle of Marauder and Outland, and I'm assuming Doomtown as well. The songs are more gentle and, overall, much longer than songs they've written in the past. On first listen, it seemed like an awkward, possibly "inspired" change in style after having grown used to what they put out with Isle - the album I discovered them with.

Over the last few months that they've had the song "High As The Sun" up on their myspace, however, I've grown to really like it. Though it sounds little if anything like Isle of Marauder material in its strange feeling of (possibly ironic) optimism, it just stands out. It may actually be their best song to date, though I suppose I should give it a little more time to make such a statement. Still, if you haven't heard it yet, I recommend you do so even if you don't listen to anything else from the album.

Perhaps second best and the first song of the album, "Beyond The Graves" starts out a bit like "Marauder" from Isle, but instead of going into bass-heavy, relatively speedy drumming, it stays low and slow. "Beyond The Graves" comes across as self-conscious and brooding even when the song picks up with a standard doomy march. The mood shifts somewhat with initial drunken rambling vocals that I'm not sure actually fit the song, but the vocals towards the middle of the song fit the slower changes well.

An instrumental theme of this album seems to be a particular high, almost piercing guitar sound. In some songs, it's part of the intro or otherwise momentary, but in "All Eyes Upon You", it's immersed in how the song moves and changes. It becomes a bit of an overkill for me towards the end of the album ("Waiting For The Fall"), but some people like that, and it does add to the overall central feel of the album.

Once the second track "All Eyes Upon You" hits around the two minute mark, it turns into a slow, groovy, non-violent headbanging doom-a-thon fans of Isis, Electric Wizard, and YOB will find easy to appreciate. After about five minutes, the song suddenly quiets paving the way for some super sad, shrill guitar and gradual fade-out. Followed by "High As The Sun", which comes across as stupidly happy regardless of all that bass, the songs are in direct contrast of each other. Instead of being awkward, the songs actually sit back-to-back quite well.

Next comes "Lowlight". Here, the semi-optimism from the previous song becomes unhappy camper once again. The sadness from "All Eyes" seems to be more of a fearful distrust and self-hate here, particularly once it finds a background of semi-psychedelic instrumental psychosis one might find in the midst of a Wolf Eyes track or set to a horror movie scene where the protagonist has lost all hope.

"Waiting For The Fall" then momentarily returns to a doomy beat and a comparatively lighter feel. Short of the tense intro, though, it's probably the weakest song of the album.

Last song "The Longest Day" is what's typically expected of a final track. It takes a while to warm up, but once it does it comes across as one of Diesto's best. It's also the first on the album where you can almost clearly hear the lyrics short of the title words... and I mean "almost", as nearly all of the vocals on High As The Sun are well blended into the music and thus intellectually distant and ethereal rather than meant to be heard literally.

Overall, High As The Sun is a good album. It does what it does well, the mood is built upon and maintained throughout the album, and it stays instrumentally familiar while still providing something new with each song. You may need to have a history of listening to doom, slower stoner, or prog/post-metal bands to approach High As The Sun at its level, but people who are simply new to Diesto won't have any trouble with this album. In other words, if you haven't heard them yet, this is a good place to start.

Once again, this album has yet to be released, but you should go listen to "High As The Sun" on their myspace regardless. In the meantime, they are playing a free show on Saturday, January 23rd at Duckett's (825 N Killingsworth) with Seattle metal band Hellgrammite and Portland's Honduran. I'm sure they'll play a few of these tracks for a better-than-myspace sampling...

MYSPACE
BUY ISLE OF MARAUDER

- Sounds of Sagittarius

Edit: It seems Google's spoiling it for you all anyway, so: Diesto.net. Don't forget to support the band, folks.