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Recently in 2010...
February 26, 2010
This song is pretty easy to like... Apparently they will live to kill again. Get it from the 2010 album Horse. Yes, they're trying not to be searchable on the internet. Nevertheless, you can find that song in their site's sidebar. February 20, 2010
Droids Attack is a stoner / sludge / hard rock kind of thing. They have a new album, out now, called Must Destroy. You can find it streaming: here.
Categories:
2010
February 11, 2010
Look what I "found" today, kids. An honest to goodness MSN blog article about a local band. If you read the whole thing, you get treated. February 9, 2010
Someone's been doing some leakin', and thus the album has arrived to the internet. It's actually late considering some in Europe already should have had this, but all the same... White Hills just released their self-titled album. Not very creative of them, but I'd put my name on this if I were them, too. It's wonderful. If you have 13 brain minutes to spare, check out the song "Let The Right One In". I can't help but notice the similarity of this name to a recently popularized Swedish vampire movie. The lost, droney bullshit you'll find in the song fits the movie style as well. Maybe it's a coincidence, but I doubt it. By the way, if you can tolerate this song, go listen to Headdress. February 5, 2010
I was wrong. [This. changes. everything.] Diesto's best song off their new album is "All Eyes Upon You". The title song is just a bit easier on the ears, easier to get into without a base. No worries, I'll change my mind again in a month. Or whatever. It doesn't matter what's "best". I just keep listening to it. Must be that long outro bit. It's weird how music changes with time even though recorded music stays the same, in present day case, forever. January 30, 2010
New White Hills album in a few days if you're from Europe or internet-capable. Otherwise, 2/23! Buy it. It's their self titled. And while you're setting up this thought in your head, go listen to 3/4 (Three Quarters). It's like you never left Mars... January 27, 2010
And now I'm listening to the new Rob Zombie. Who knew this day would ever come. I didn't even know he had a new album coming out until the other day. I think I stopped really caring what he was doing musically at approximately the age 18, the week after I got "I'm Your Boogie Man" stuck in my head. I remember telling an ex that the song was stuck in my head and he had never heard it, so I sent him to Napster. Jesus Frankenstein, indeed. One of these days I'm going to get all nostalgic about the Swamp and that guy Spiritbeggar, who posted this album... So. Here we go. 1. Starts like a stereotype of "current" metal, ImmOpeshUggaHammer (bad comparisons, oh well)... and then moves into something else more classic sounding. Freakin' unfocused. I like the bass riff thing in the non-"hey" vocal parts. My guess this has made it to the radio already... I haven't listened to the radio in probably a year, so... who knows. Maybe you do. 2. Oh boy, a movie/sound track. Holy moly, that sounded familiar for a second there. It changed. Hmm. I'm taking it that this album won't be available at Walmart. What a weird concept... Oh, there we go with the familiarity again. What song is that? Electric Head? Yeah... a slowed down Electric Head. Maybe I'm wrong, I'm having issues here trying to identify the exact thing I'm hearing. 3. Another piece of movie. And what's this, Manson Magnet of Reality? I think I've heard this before... Wikipedia is telling me yes, I have. It's pretty easy. 4. Now we're gonna get southern/country emotional. Long intro, or...? lol. Okay, long intro. I like how bands think they're innovative by having completely irrelevant intros to songs. I wonder how long it took Rob to remember the lyrics to this song. He's getting old, I'm thinking two lines is one too many at this point. 5. More random familiarity. I think the proper way to say that was "when the night comes", not "when the night come" because now I'm wondering what the hell day come is. Perpetually 14... 6. Church bells = virginity. Oh shit, we're going black metal on your ass. Gotta dress in black rags and prance around the damn trees now, brb. WHITE PAINT. I HAVE STICK. DEATH FACE. 7. ... Well, it's groovy. Nice? 8. Wiki told me I may have heard this one. I'm not recognizing it so far. It sounds... like a song. 9. Fairly typical almost-the-end-of-the-album drawn out slower track... The undefinable borrowing is getting to me, though. 10. Another groovy style track... 11. Classical music meets metal: That's never been done before. Fairly good intro, though, and at least it works as its presented in the rest of the song. The [seeming] drum outro is a bit..long... though it comes back to song, song. Drum solo, then. Sarcasm aside, it's alright. Nothing shitty, but nothing that'll blow your mind either. Younger people or those who've only just barely touched on Rob Zombie (or metal of any kind) won't know the difference, and Rob Zombie's "image" will make it work, so I'm guessing it's going to do well and get good general reviews. January 23, 2010
Mendozza has two new songs on their myspace from their upcoming (1/29) album Cabra Noche: "Sludgehammer" and "Witch Hunt". Nah, that second one's not a re-title of "Fairies Wear Boots", nope. January 20, 2010
Red Sparowes' new album is due out April 6th. Here's a pretty teaser: January 13, 2010
New High On Fire track. In case you hadn't already heard. It's better than that shitty live video that was going around. Snakes For The Divine = February 23rd. January 10, 2010
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 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 Tracklist: 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.
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.
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... Edit: It seems Google's spoiling it for you all anyway, so: Diesto.net. Don't forget to support the band, folks. January 2, 2010
Song: "Antler Wings" Hey, like, this song doesn't bore me to death. Congratulations, Ancestors. It's a first. And possibly also a first for Ancestors to fit a whole song on a single side record... This split comes out sometime in 2010 from Volcom. I suggest you head on over to Volcom right now and sign up for their split vinyl club. |
CommentReadersLast.fm |
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.
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.