dammitdammitdammit

Wednesday, December 28, 2005 · Showtime/Doors 7:30PM
Thursday
With special guests Blood Brothers, Me Without You and Circle Takes The Square.
An all-ages to enter, 21 to drink event.

$20 + applicable surcharges

goddamn americans. how fucking cool is that? unfair. that's gotta be one of the best lineups ever. and thursday are previewing stuff off their new album too. who wants to fly me over there, then back here in time for my greenroom gig on the 29th? huh huh? i'll even pay the $20 for your entry. :)

Burst - Origo

Burst are the latest band from Relapse records to be hyped as having the potential to shake their genre down and build something new. Considering the last two bands from Relapse to receive this kind of treatment were The Dillinger Escape Plan and Mastodon, this is quite a precedent to live up to. Burst definitely have a lot more in common with Mastodon than the former. This is a metal band, and if you don’t like metal, you wont like Origo, but if you do, you’ll find it does bring some new perspective and life to the genre.

With their third full length Burst have produced a metal album that has much in common with their peers in bands like Mastodon and Isis. The emphasis on the songs is on texture and depth to provide the heaviness. There’s a very earthy, natural and rugged feel that runs through the music on Origo. Softer passages in the middle of songs like Flight’s End provide moments for reflection as a piano melody weaves its way through the other instruments. Burst are quite adept at using these interactions between instruments to create strong textures through their work.

Immateria features duelling growled and sung vocal lines for much of the song, before a soft guitar interlude leads us into the heavy part. A floating organ melody and double kick drumming finishes the whole thing off with a fitting sense of epic drama. The band’s focus is on creating a full sound to suit whatever the song needs, and throughout they mix a lot of acoustic guitar and piano/organ to create different moods. The breadth of their style and ability is also on show, with Slave Emotion featuring some very fast thrash style drums, that fit perfectly into a song which isn’t really thrash at all. It Comes Into View is a restrained instrumental interlude which builds up a number of times without ever really breaking. But if that leaves you frustrated, Stormweilder is right behind and instantly kicks into full gear.

Origo is surprisingly short, but it’s nine songs feel a lot longer than the 45 minutes they are thanks to the layers of texture that have been worked into them. It is an album which like many of the metal greats will require repeat listenings over time to be allowed to sink in properly, but those willing to try should find themselves happily absorbed.

(Originally published on FasterLouder)

Behind Crimson Eyes - Prologue: The Art of War/Cherry Blossom Epitaph

It seems Behind Crimson Eyes love nothing more than a good story. But whereas their debut EP Pavour Nocturnus dealt with the transformation into a terror of the night, Prologue, a double A side single, tells the musical story of the band. The two A-sides both show very different aspects of the band, and a noticeable progression from Pavour Nocturnus.

The first track, The Art of War has the most in common with that release, and what the band have made their name for. A single guitar line explodes into a post-hardcore chorus as the words “I scream out your name to the night” are, appropriately enough, screamed out at us. But the verse is what immediately strikes you as the newest element to the band’s sound. This is extra catchy, even for them, with the drumbeat and short bouncy guitar line giving the feel of an ‘80s pop song, but with punk guitars replacing the synths. But hang on, in the second verse, and in the bridge… those ARE synths in the background. There was a minor experimention with electronics to towards the end of Pavour Nocturnus, but this is much more forward.

But that’s nothing compared to the change that Cherry Blossom Epitaph shows. This is a completely new side to the band. Soft and sweetly written, the usual screamings for the chorus are replaced by a female backing vocal, “don’t breathe in to breathe out”. Finally the reasoning behind a double A-side becomes clear. Both songs are well written and could stand on their own, but only really give half the story of what the band can do.

There are two more songs included on the CD as well. If Cherry Blossom Epitaph strays too far from the old sound for anyone, Revenge I – Of the Cradle will bring them right back home. It’s got screaming, it’s got a head banging beat, it’s got the twin guitar attack, and it’s the old Behind Crimson Eyes again. Final track In Memory Of continues the experimentation, again in a slightly different direction. Electronic drums, synth melodies and rhythms and subdued vocals over only a soft guitar melody. It’ll be interesting to see how this accepted by the bands fans, but it’s good to see them already trying something else with their sound. It also leads one to wonder what type of ground they’d cover on a full length release. This is after all, just the prologue…

(Originally published on FasterLouder)

Deftones - B-Sides & Rarities

Like the trail of stones left by Hansel and Gretel through the forest, sometimes you can follow the history of a band as well by the songs they discard along the way as those that get carried with them. As a compilation, the Deftones B-Sides & Rarities is unlikely to reach as far as a proper album from the band. But paradoxically, this may be one of their most accessible albums to date. I took this disc on holidays last week with some friends who generally shy away from what the Deftones are known for (loud drums, distorted guitars and screaming vocals – for all their subtleties and melodies the Deftones are a metal band after all), but all were quietly taken in and surprised by how much they enjoyed what was on show here.

As songs that were left off the official albums for whatever reasons, these B-sides & Rarities cover a very varied lot of ground. There are acoustic versions, covers, collaborations with other bands and other experiments throughout. The first stop for most fans will be the acoustic versions of old favourites. Be Quite and Drive (Far Away) is given a complete work over with help from DJ Crook (Team Sleep), while tracks from White Pony such as Change (In The House of Flies) and Digital Bath prove their ability to retain suspense and tension without the bludgeoning distortion.

Savory is a combined jam session between the Deftones and Far, another band from their hometown of Sacramento, and the first of many varied collaborations on the album. B-Real from Cypress Hill provides vocals for Black Moon, a left over from the White Pony sessions. Unsurprisingly DJ Crook and the members of Team Sleep (vocalist Chino Moreno’s other band) pop up on a few of the tracks, as do members of Far, while Teenager (Idiot Version) sees Chino join the band Idiot Pilot for a “real instruments” version of the song which was originally built from a drum loop and a sample provided by Crook.

The covers chosen are as varied as the original works on display, proving that this is caused by a band who are willing to draw from a broad range of areas. From the suspense of If Only Tonight We Could Sleep, recorded live for the MTV Icons tribute to The Cure, to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Simple Man, to songs by Duran Duran and The Smiths and back to the more predictable like Helmet’s Sinatra. “We did this one just to play loud/hard.” States guitarist Stef Carpenter in the liner notes. It’s not the only heavy song on the album though, although overall it is a surprisingly mellow collection for the band. A left over from the Around The Fur sessions, Crenshaw Punch/I’ll Throw Rocks At You is what the band do best, grinding guitars, tight rhythms and mysterious vocals which hint at as much as they say.

The album also comes with an accompanying DVD, featuring video clips for every single the band has released, plus two new clips for Engine no. 9 and Root from the debut album Adreneline. The video for Bored (also of that album) is the archetypal mid-’90s rock video. Grainy/damaged footage, the band playing in an abandoned house, skating and bikes, it’s all here courtesy of director Nick Egan. Breakthrough single My Own Summer (Shove It) is given a bizarre shark cage/underwater treatment by Dean Karr which never quite works, but follow up Be Quite and Drive (Far Away) shows the band playing in an empty car park with a simplistic style courtesy of Purge which lets the strength of the song come to the forefront. Change (In The House of Flies), directed by Liz Friedlander, is a visual work of art which fits perfectly to the song as the band play in various rooms throughout a party full of decadence where everyone seems slightly removed from the “reality” around them. Minerva from the self-titled Deftones album is another well directed video by Paul Fedor, which shows the band playing in a desert which accentuates the epic sound of the song.

Generally Rarities compilations are for hardcore fans only, and there’s no doubt the Deftones faithful will love everything on offer here. But considering the DVD is essentially a “Best Of”, with all the singles and well known songs, and the accessible and varied nature of the songs on the CD, this compilation may also be the perfect introduction for new fans as well to what makes the Deftones stand out above so many of their peers in the world of modern heavy music.

(Originally published on FasterLouder)

debut gig with new band

crap photo yes... but details are this:
Sinatra's Eyes.
22/11/2005 08:00 PM - Revolver - Round 2 Melb. Fresh
, Prahran, -
Melbourne Fresh Battle of the Bands. Semi final with Fortnight, Platform Orange, Fallacy, Rust, Heartless Vendetta and 31 Shots. Cost: $8

Killing Joke - XXV Gathering: Let Us Prey

“We have so much work to do tonight” announces Jaz Coleman between the first two songs on this latest live offering from Killing Joke. The fourteen years between those two songs would be a lot of work on its own, but that’s only part of the story. The title of XXV Gathering: Let Us Prey is pretty self-explanatory, a collection of Killing Joke songs spanning their entire career, recorded live at their 25th anniversary shows in February.

Killing Joke are one of those bands who always managed to escape the mainstream consciousness, but nevertheless had a big impact on the music scene by influencing a whole generation who came after them. Nine Inch Nails, The Smashing Pumpkins, Ministry, Metallica, Fear Factory and many others freely admit to having drawn inspiration from the Killing Joke sound. Their most recent, self titled album in 2003 has possibly been the most visible to the general music public thanks to the drumming spot being filled by Dave Grohl, who then spent following interviews gushing about how exciting it was to work with such an important band.

The songs on Gathering span everything from this most recent release all the way back to the 1980 debut, also a self-titled album. So how can you objectively review a show which celebrates the fact that a band is older than you? Fortunately in this case it’s easy. Perhaps Killing Joke are lucky to have been spared mainstream success, as the passion and vitality of their music is still prominent. They’re still around because they still have something to say. I myself only discovered the band through the 2003 release, so it’s good to see a few songs from that album like Asteroid, the fast point of the set and a strong crowd singalong. But the real beauty of this album is that you can forget the time span and listen to this right next to tracks like Wardance (1980), Communion (1994) and Sun Goes Down (1992) with none of these periods seeming weaker than the others.

It’s also great to hear the older songs in a slightly different format. The recording is clear and despite much being made of the “rough” nature of the performance, the true test of a bands skill is not their ability to play perfectly, but their ability to keep going and not let any mistakes cause an issue. Thus as Coleman states in the liner notes that this recording is “unoverdubbed [and] imperfect”, it’s followed up with “and beautiful”. So there’s a few mistakes, it just goes to show that Killing Joke still put passion into their performance. It still feels dangerous, because the band still aren’t afraid to do and say what they want. “Who killed Dr David Kelley and Diana… Did Tony Blair know? ... I’m waiting for the truth.” Coleman asks in a break in The Wait. The live setting also gives a new life to even the older songs. Requiem may well be the highlight of the set. The thumping drums, crunchy guitar and pulsing bass/synth sounds are what most modern industrial bands still aim for today.

XXV Gathering celebrates 25 years of one of the pioneers of the industrial scene. But it’s far from the end, with a new album planned for next year.

(Originally published on FasterLouder)

Various Artists - The Best of Taste of Chaos

The Taste of Chaos tour attempts to bring together some of the most bands of the post-emo-hardcore spectrum. Despite only featuring about eight bands on the tour (only five made it to the local version which just recently hit our country), The Best of Taste of Chaos gathers forty bands together on two discs. And it does a surprisingly good job of giving an overview of the current state within these related sub-genres.

Loosely split into the more poppy bands (disc one) and the harder edge (disc two), there is a fair bit of ground covered here. All the bands who made the Australian Taste of Chaos are present, such as The Used, Story of The Year, Killswitch Engage, Funeral for a Friend and Rise Against, but some of the bands from the US tour such as Atreyu and My Chemical Romance are absent. Matchbook Romance provide the most emo moment with the mainly acoustic In Transit, but things are mixed up a bit with tracks like Our Time is Now from Story of The Year who combine the emocore verses with an eighties hard rock aesthetic in the choruses and riffing. They also put on one of the best visual performances at the tour, but seem a little lacking without this on disc.

From First to Last’s Note to Self is a nice little catchy ditty, with some heavy kick thrown in at the end to raise things. But to be honest just about every track on disc one has a chorus with the potential to get stuck in your head. Thursday’s contribution is a touching contemplation about life in a world obsessed with the terrorist threat. It’s clear that they have many of the same influences as the other bands that surround them, but there’s something about the way they combine them in War All The Time which makes it the stand out track on disc one and shows off the musical understanding of the band.

Disc two kicks off with the heavy assault of Avenged Sevenfold, Killswitch Engage, Every Time I Die and Shadows Fall all in a row. Every Time I Die’s Kill The Music is probably the best example of what’s in store with this disc: more growling, harder drumming and more technical guitar work. And I have to admit at this stage I got more excited about disc two than I had been about disc one. Norma Jean also offer Bayonetwork which is another slice of heavier, less straightforward music and quite impressive. Oddly enough Saosin provide the only live track for a release that’s supposed to celebrate a tour.

With a compilation which relies so much on the genre relation to bring all these bands together, it’s not surprising that some of them start to sound the same (remember, there’s forty bands on this disc). But there are a few surprises lying around still. The Dillinger Escape Plan provide us with Unretrofied, which is almost the inverse of the typical hardcore song. Uncharacteristically catchy for the band and featuring harmonies and synths, it switches around in the middle to give us a dose of distortion, odd chords and screams, then go back to where we started. Opiate for The Masses bring a bit of breakbeat electronic drumming into their mix, while Chariot add a bit of dark metal to their hardcore sound and some grind style vocals, And Then Came Them is possibly one of the darkest songs here.

But the most different is closer Flaco 81 by the Street Drum Corps, a rhythmic percussive piece featuring drums of many types and some really interesting rhythms. It’s a change from the rest, but still retains the same headspace as everything that’s come before it, and thus makes a nice way to end out the set.

(Originally published on FasterLouder)