Let’s be honest

For the most part this blog has more or less been abandoned. As such, I’m looking to go ahead and delete all of the links since they’re cluttering up my mediafire account. If you happen to stumble upon this blog and would like a link to one of the albums that’s be reviewed or whatever feel free to email me at mellowedoubt@gmail.com and I will reupload the album just for you and reply with the link *the link will then be taken off in 48 hours as to avoid clutter*

Obscure Italians really know how to prog

I haven’t exactly discovered a lot of obscure, unknown artists throughout the years. True, there’s been some here, some there, but nothing I’ve ever discovered on my own has been truly unknown. Even this remarkable progressive rock album out of Italy was not obtained by me. Mellow_guy, the genius behind this blog, has made a living seeking out obscure music that sometimes doesn’t even have a listing on rateyourmusic.com and a mere few hundred listeners on last.fm, has begun opening me up to some undiscovered gems that lie out there. And what a gem this one is. It’s amazing that a tight, powerful, atmospheric album such as this has not been discovered by even the most hardcore of prog rock fans. What separates the unknown from the known will always be a mystery, but of course all that ultimately matters is how good the music is.

Anyone who enjoys progressive rock should enjoy this album. It comes from some of the darkest, moodiest places of prog rock and features excellent instrumentation and a foreboding atmosphere, and the instrumentation ranges from haunting ambient passages to acoustic breakdowns to crushing near-metal riffs. It’s like the twisted bastard child of Porcupine Tree decided to mate with Agalloch, yet it ends up sounding like neither of them. It pays homage to its forebears while putting its own unique spin on the genre. These guys have talent, too. The bass is plucky and powerful and the guitar solos take on an old-school virtuosity that is rarely heard anymore. Just listen to him rip out those riffs in “Who Has Got the Last Laugh Now?”! Virtuoso isn’t all that he can do either…listen to that subtle yet powerful guitar strumming throughout the title track, or the beautiful opening melody to “Who Painted the Sky?”. Although the band still sounds like they’re getting their footing at times, for the most part they play with tight musicianship and complement each other well. Odd bits of other instruments enhance the atmosphere – the sparse piano interlude “Heppet et Noru Dest” is positively haunting. “Who Painted the Sky?”, in addition to having an Agalloch-esque name, takes some influence from their sound as well and borders on folk metal for the last 3 minutes. There’s a great depth to this music – their influences are recognizable without being obvious, and in fact much of the music possesses a subtlety that most of the genre lacks, and the music only continues to reveal more layers with each listen. It’s impossible to absorb this album on first listen and it took me 3 or 4 to fully appreciate it.

I only have a couple of minor complaints about this album. One is that the production definitely sounds like it comes from a band that nobody has ever heard of. It makes it a bit hard to concentrate on the music sometimes, and static even rears its head from time to time, although I’m not sure if this is intentional or not. The other is that the singer’s voice could use some work. He sounds unsure of himself and it comes off a little shaky and thin. It’s nothing that couldn’t be fixed with some more confidence and better production, though. It’s also hardly a major drawback as most of the album is instrumental. I also don’t understand the point of “Postman”. Perhaps the point of the song is the German dialogue spoken throughout much of the song (possibly sampled?), but since I don’t understand German, any meaning of the song is lost on me.

In conclusion, eating.seats has crafted a remarkable and sadly overlooked gem of progressive rock that would appeal to any fan of the genre. A unique, fresh sound, virtuoso guitar playing, haunting atmospherics, and excellent songwriting skills make this a captivating and wholly intriguing listen that shouldn’t be missed, but unfortunately will be by almost everybody. This comes with my stamp of approval, and I’ll make sure to be on the lookout for any future releases from this band. They could go in some interesting directions – even if nobody ever knows it.

Recommended songs: Secrets About September, Kelso, Who Has Got the Last Laugh Now?
Score: 4.5/5

Download their album for free at their official website: http://www.eatingseats.com/sas/

Comus – First Utterance (1971)

It’s been said that an image is worth a thousand words and I’ve been told that some folks tend to judge a book by it’s cover. As you can see, the album art of Comus debut album, First Utterance, depicts a creep looking pseudo-man wolf creature that’s in a world of hurt. If I were to judge the album on this alone (hint: I totally did) then I guess I can expect some sort of creepy, haunting tunes. First Utterance delivers and then some in that respect. It’s the sort of record that, after spinning it, you sort of just sit down for a moment and think to yourself “what in the world did I just listen to?”. I think I just listened to some bizarre progressive folk.

Perhaps the greatest thing that this album has to offer is the lament of the violin, which is featured on most of the tracks. Coupled with the wavering vocals and harmonious chants, First Utterance is an unnerving first listen to say the least. The first track, “Diana”, is a frantic little diddy about a gal named Diana that’s driven by the violin chords and features what sounds to me like a bongo drum solo. The two headed monster that is “Drip Drip Drip” followed by “Song to Comus” is sure to give you goose bumps, or your money back (guaransheed).

Check it out if you’re a fan of quality tunes.

Link: Coming soon

The Offspring deliver nostalgic appeal and drop a solid album after a five year wait

The Offspring have been fairly consistent in their rise from punk rock underground venues to the front runners of the punk revival of the 90′s. In all its shining glory, The Offspring are undoubtedly amongst the elites in punk rock, and it was 2003′s Splinter and arguably 2000′s Conspiracy of One which made us doubt these claims.

Rise and Fall, rage and Grace, first off, is not a great album. Sure with punk anthems like “Half-Truism” and lead single “Hammerhead,” The Offspring can prove that hook-infested riffs and catchy chorus’s are their strong suit.

But none of these songs, not a single one, can hold a candle to the opus’s FLOODING Ixnay on the Hombre or Smash, their 90′s wonder albums that spawned the genre into mainstream attention over 10 years ago.

And this is a common problem amongst bands from the 90′s refocusing and delivering material and a technologically overwhelmed post-modern era. When people grow up listening to an artist, it is those songs that become the staples of a bands career, and it is THOSE songs that will always remain favorites.

Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace simply cannot compete with staple friendly “Come Out and Play,” “Self Esteem,” “Gone Away,” “The Kids Aren’t Alright,” “Bad Habit” and I can go on and on.

Now that is not to say the Rise and Fall is poor. Half-Truism opens strong with a song reminiscent of their 90′s haydey, and “Takes Me Nowhere” is eerily representative of this era as well.

But it is ballads like “Kristy, Are You Doing OK” and “Fix You” that make this album stand out from their previous releases. The strongest track on the album, “A Lot Like Me” is a powerful, borderline epic, anthem that delivers a crushing transition from a soft beginning to a chant-worthy chorus- reigning the track the highlight of the record.

The overall problem with the album is that it is VERy short, like most releases by the band. But that hurts this album more so than previously, as the album is painstakingly inconsistent. For every track worth mentioning, another drags it down with either a snoozefest of a song (Trust in You) or a cheesy ballad in Kristy…

The album flows poorly, and this may be the biggest offense for the record as a whole, as a strong track is brought down by a poor track, and the last three songs of the album are heinous filler.

The truth is, The Offspring are probably my favorite band of all time. I am a sucker for nostalgia, as their superior tracks lead me to a time of innocence and ignorance, a time where “bad Habit” got the blood throwing unlike any other- where Smashing Pumpkins were still cool and Green Day didn’t release American Idiot, (or for that matter 21st Century Breakdown.)

But all Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace, makes me want to do is put in their pre-2000 albums, and it is less because I grew up listening to them and more because the newer tracks are simply weaker copycats of a former glory.

Rise and Fall… is good for a listen, but the songs grow weaker and even powerhouse single “You’re Gonna Go Far Kid” lacks the emotional tug and punk fury of the past.

Not quite a fall, but definitely not grace, here The Offspring denies longevity and proves just a little bit more staleness in sound and ideas.

3/5

-ryanM-

Track Listing:

1. “Half-Truism”
2. “Trust in You”
3. “You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid”
4. “Hammerhead”
5. “A Lot Like Me”
6. “Takes Me Nowhere”
7. “Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?”
8. “Nothingtown”
9. “Stuff Is Messed Up”
10. “Fix You”
11. “Let’s Hear It for Rock Bottom”
12. “Rise and Fall”

Fanboy vs. First-Timer: Rush Edition Part 2

In our second edition of this run-through of Rush’s large discography, we move on to the band’s second album:

Fly By Night (1975)

rand0m’s take on Fly By Night

Being their second album release, this one showed marked improvement over the self-titled debut, mainly due to the addition of Neil Peart to the band as drummer and lyricist.  You can tell right from the start that the drumming here is a hell of a lot better than Rutsey’s on s/t- that’s not to say Rutsey is a bad drummer- just that Peart is an incredibly good one.  The lyricism, though, at this point is a bit hit-or-miss for me.  On one hand, you have a couple of very well-written songs (Beneath, Between and Behind, Fly By Night, Making Memories).  On the other, we have Anthem, a song based on Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism, which, to put it nicely, I just despise, then, By-tor & the Snow Dog, while a nice song, has some less-than-stellar lyrical content.  Combine that with the Tolkein based Rivendall, and two obvious hold-overs from the pre-Peart days (Best I Can, In the End) and you have a rather unbalanced effort lyrically, though still a hell of a lot better than what was put on the debut.

Despite my disagreements with it’s lyrical statements, though, Anthem proves to be a wonderful rocker to kick off the album with.  It somehow feels a bit more mature than the more Zeppelin-based blues rock the band had been playing before, and the riffs have begun to differentiate their style from that of their influences quite significantly.  Of course, the Randian lyrical content puts me off, but I can still enjoy the song for what it is.  Often times I’ll just convince myself that the whole Objectivism thing was a tongue-in-cheek effort on Peart’s part, but the 2112 liner notes signal that that is just not the case.  In any event, it’s nice that he got out of this phase relatively quickly.  The next two tracks are quite similar to each other, in that they’re relatively straight-forward, rather angry rockers, though Beneath, Between and Behind gets the upper hand for its more developed lyrical content.

Next up is the centerpiece of the album, arguably the band’s first “epic” and what is nearly unanimously considered the highlight of the album- yes even by me.  Not so meaningful lyrical, but very meaningful instrumentally, especially towards the tail end of the instrumental “battle” section, in which Alex whips out his beautiful mournful solo, showing he can do more than just rock.  As one the first real extensive uses of Peart’s tubular bells, this song brought along a new kind of sound for the band and is the pre-cursor to all of their later progressive works over the next couple of albums.

Next up is the title track, and probably their catchiest song to this point.  Great riff, incredible bass, good lyrics- just an all around great song, well worthy of the album’s title.  Making Memories, a more overlooked gem, follows along afterwards, telling tales of the band’s touring journeys up to this point and their aspirations for the future.  Largely acoustic, this marked a different kind of direction for the band, and this song is followed directly by the fully acoustic, Rivendall, with lyrics inspired by Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings series.  The song itself is oddly beautiful, and unique, in that it completely lacks drums and bass.  Unfortunately, it’s just a bit too simplistic for its own good and drags out way past its welcome, making it a rather dull song in the end.

Speaking of, In the End, that’s the song that rounds out this album, and it does so magnificently.  The acoustic intro and buildup are just fantastic, and the electric explosion is just wonderful.  This song does go on for a while, but, unlike the previous one, it seems completely warranted by the various dynamic changes and a wonderful solo from Alex, which complements in its back half.  Really, the progression of this song is just beautiful, and everything about it is well done.  You could call it the Here Again of this album, it gives the album a perfect send off.

7/10, Good
Highlights:Anthem, By-tor and the Snow Dog, Fly By Night, In the End

Axel’s take on Fly By Night

It’s almost ridiculous how much Rush improved in just one album. It’s not that they did a complete 180 from hard rock to progressive, either; while they show definite elements of progressive rock starting to creep into their music, by and large this is still a hard rock album. It’s clear they wouldn’t become a full-on progressive band until later on. What’s different about it is how much the songwriting has improved.

The album kicks off with “Anthem”, which grabs your attention immediately with a superb riff. Geddy’s bombastic singing from the last album remains, but it works much better on this song than most of the debut. It also features noticeably better drumming, thanks to the booting of John Rutsey in favor of the virtuosic Neil Peart.

Anthem’s momentum is preserved by the next song, “Best I Can”, which is admittedly not as good as the first track, but still very enjoyable. The wah pedal-heavy guitar solo is also great, as are the tasteful-yet-technically-challenging drum fills.

“Beneath, Between and Behind” is one of Rush’s first experiments with odd time signatures, and it really works because of Peart’s drumming. Of course, the entire band puts on great performances.

Then comes the towering centerpiece of Fly by Night, “By-Tor and the Snow Dog”. While it’s a very good song by itself, it’s even more important in the context of Rush’s career; it paved the way for their future epics like “2112″ and “Cygnus X-1″.  That’s not to discredit the song as merely a historical curio in the Rush canon, as it features really excellent guitar work and a transitional string section in the middle that never gets boring, despite the fact that it’s a transitional string section.

This is followed up by “Fly by Night”, probably the best straight-ahead rocker on the album. While there’s not too much to set it apart from other Rush songs, its strength is the sheer enjoyability of it; the song is really joyous and upbeat, while being very catchy at the same time.

“Making Memories” is a largely acoustic guitar-driven song, with a really great chord progression fueling Geddy Lee’s wonderful vocal performance. When the drums kick in, it feels natural and easy. Just an awesome song overall.

Then comes “Rivendell”, a very atmospheric song featuring little more than soft guitar fingerpicking, flutes, and Lee’s uncharacteristically gentle singing. You always expect “Rivendell” to blow up and become an awesome electric song, but it never happens. But somehow, that’s okay. It does what it does well.

“In the End” is the second-longest song on the album, and definitely one of the most progressive, in that it uses dynamics a lot and doesn’t go with a standard song structure. It’s a very fitting end to a wonderful album.

All in all, it seemed Neil Peart was the magic ingredient that Rush needed to become Rush. His lyrical wordplay (which I haven’t mentioned in the review so far, as I’ve only listened to the album twice and I really wasn’t paying attention to what Lee was saying) and tight drumming went hand-in-hand with Geddy and Alex’s songwriting. The best part? They would only better themselves after this album.

At least, that’s what I’m assuming.

8/10, Awesome

Highlights: Anthem, By-Tor and the Snow Dog, Fly By Night, Making Memories

The results are quite similar to the last one, with the first-timer once again giving the higher rating, though agreed that this was a marked improvement over the debut.  It may be obvious, but here are the current rankings:

random:

1.Fly By Night                                                                                                                                                                                                          2.Rush

Axel:

1.Fly By Night                                                                                                                                                                                                          2.Rush

See you next time!

Don’t hate on Ted Leo – He might just melt your face off

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Living With The Living (2007)

(The post title is referring to this)

A lot of people ripped on “Living With The Living” when it came out. It’s hard to blame someone for being disappointed after Ted and the Pharmacists put out three stellar albums in a row from 2001-2004, but by no means does that mean this is a bad album. People complained that it was too long, too bloated, too political, too poppy, too much anything, in fact. Are these legitimate complaints? Yes, to some degree, but it’s not worth writing off an album that’s got plenty of fantastic songs.

“Living With The Living” doesn’t miss a beat through the first eight songs, my favorite being “A Bottle of Buckie.” It may be the most perfect song Ted Leo has ever written. “Bomb.Repeat.Bomb” seems to divide people, but I think it’s fine. It’s an aggressive, half-singing, half-talking kind of song, but it’s generally enjoyable. Some listeners, particularly Christians, may have a very difficult time dealing with “Annunciation Day/Born on Christmas Day” in which Ted Leo explicitly declares what he thinks of religion over some U2-esque guitar work.

I just can’t understand what people hated so much about this record. Stylistically it bears more resemblance to the Ted’s earlier album, “Tyranny of Distance” than “Shake the Sheets.” And “Tyranny of Distance” is a very good album, and I think any Ted Leo fan would agree with me on that. And sure, sometimes politics in music can turn people off. But anybody who bought this album when it came out was surely aware of Ted Leo’s politics already, so I don’t take that as a valid excuse.

So give it a chance. There’s more good than bad on this album. And with Ted Leo, the good is always very, very rewarding.

Rating: 3.75/5

This guy mega-loathes deceitful people

Captain Chaos - May All Liars Burn In Hell (2005)

Sometimes I listen to the radio with my older brother because he, for whatever reason, can’t stomach the tunes I enjoy. For this reason I’d feel comfortable saying that I’m well versed with what’s popular with the kids nowadays. It seems to me that most folks fancy songs that don’t tell stories (barring the “yo yo gurl lemme get somma dat” or whatever but I don’t consider that a story; I know this is a broad generalization but for the sake of this review let’s go with it). I’d imagine these casual listeners would be upset by the opening track of Captain Chaos‘ album May All Liars Burn In Hell. This record kicks off with a tale of a desperate musician who decides to rob a bank. The kicker is that he expects to get caught and that he hopes that the publicity associated with the arrest will drum up interest in his music. Unusual? Sure is. Does it make for a groovy song? You tell me.

Captain Chaos is an alias of Chris Clavin, who is one half of the two headed folk punk moster known as Ghost Mice (disclaimer: I’ve yet to listen to a Ghost Mice album). He seems like a pretty cool dude that plays a mean acoustic guitar that just happens to have a hardcore loathing for deceitful folk). Most all of the time the tracks are up beat with nothing but Chris and his six string, spinning yarns about Justin Clifford Rhody and other interesting things. His voice is soft enough to sound fitting with the acoustic, yet hard and enthusiastic enough to pick up on the punx vibe (I spelled “punk” that way on purpose because I think that’s how all the cool kids do it nowadays).

The cover of the album has two stuffed animal monkey things near a beach. That’s pretty cool, but random. This one time I threw a frisbee. Random. It’s a must have for anyone that enjoys acoustic punx or any of the Plan-It X projects for that matter. By the way, Chris Clavin has dropped the moniker since the release of this album and is releasing tuneskis under his real name. Just letting you know since chances are that you’ll want to check out more of this dude’s stuff. Mad props to Muffins for the rec.

4.25/5

Written by Mellow

Get on our wavelength

A highlighter colored jungle cat?

A while back, as I type I’d imagine it was nearly a year ago, I was in a new music slump of sorts. At this time I was really digging the band Black Mountain, but I was hoping for something new to grab my attention. As such, I wanted something that was in some way shape or form associated with that band. Then I started to think: Black Mountain and Okkervil River are both swell bands and both are signed to Jagjagwar (I assume my spelling is off, but whatever). Faster than a jack rabbit on a hot tin roof I found myself on the record company’s official website, specifically in the artist section. A few band names caught me eye, but then I saw the Skygreen Leopards. What’s more cool than a highlighter colored carniverous jungle cat? Nothing, that’s what. Soon after I visited soulseek and acquired the first album by the Skygreen Leopards that I saw: Disciples of California. ‘Tis a laid back album from, as Last.fm says, “a magical psych-pop band”. The tunes feature vocals from both members of the band and mostly acoustic guitar, complete with some at times spacey production touches that make for a sound that fits a California worshipping hippie outfit. With track titles such as “Disciples of California” and “Jesus was a Californian”, it’s clear that the Skygreen Leopards have a spiritual connection to the state they call home. I don’t mind it, given that it inspires some quality songs. All in all the album sounds like something that may have been released nearly 40 years earlier, yet the vibe doesn’t feel dated. There’s a stellar mix of slower, sweeter songs and more upbeat numbers (if that means anything to it). I suppose it’s worth a lesson if you’re into folky stuff, psychedelic stuff, or anything relative to highlighter colored carniverous jungle cats.

4.5/5

Written by Mellow

Get on our wavelength

Nothing Short of Life Changing

Dustin from Dustin and the Furniture brings something wonderfully refreshing to the folk punk scene. What is it? His lack of anger. While other dudes in the scene are howling with vocals laced in anger and features vocals about getting in bar fights or drinking whisky, Dustin is suprisingly serene. According to the band’s myspace page Dustin and the Furniture “growing up and staying young, talking about plants and skinning racoons, feeling good and feeling bad, thinking and not thinking”. I’d look elsewhere for more information, but I’m lazy and confident that what I already know is as good as it gets.

Now Living in the Living Room is nothing short of a life changing album. Lies and slander, right? Dustin is a prophet at times. Using his content yet melancholy drone, the man preaches about the importance of opening your mind and respecting mother nature.  These are sweet tales of our world’s demise that Dustin seems to have accepted. Sure, it’s clear that he has plenty of ideas that may delay the inevitable. Then again, he’s also his own worst critic. One thing is for certain though: lyrically this is the best album I’ve ever heard. As for the instrumental parts: it’s fairly simple, slow and sad acoustic guitar. Nothing mindblowing, but it fits the album perfectly.

Tracks from “Wolves” to “Tree in the Field” to “No Revolution” will keep a listener thinking all the while tapping their toes. It’s remarkable.  By the way, I originally found this album free from CLLT. That site has since crashed, but you can also buy the album if you “want to help me buy land and build a house” (an excerpt from his myspace). Killer album.

5/5

Written by Mellow

Get on our wavelength

Mastodon – Crack the Skye (2009)

Mastodon is on the rise. Just ask anyone with a working knowledge of metal music, and they’ll confirm it. It’s not for no reason, either; this Atlanta-based quartet has consistently put out material that expands their sound into ever unexplored territory. The band is relentlessly ambitious, and each new album only builds their reputation and fame; there hasn’t yet been a dud. As you would imagine from a situation like this, expectations for Crack the Skye, both from the music press and from the band’s own fans, were sky high.

Exhale that held breath, metalheads: Crack the Skye does not disappoint. Upon first glance, one might be underwhelmed by the short track list; the album contains only seven songs, half the number of their previous offering, Blood Mountain. But one should consider this a fair trade-off: not only are the tunes longer in general, but this is easily Mastodon’s most polished set of songs yet.

A fair criticism of the album might be made of the album’s lyrics and theme; like all other Mastodon albums, this one revolves around a concept. However, while Leviathan and Blood Mountain had fairly easy-to-swallow themes (Moby Dick and climbing a mountain, respectively), Crack the Skye’s concept is the strangest yet; even a brief summary would seem to a normal person like inane babble. Suffice to say that it involves a space-traveling paraplegic trapped in the body of Rasputin, attempting to overthrow the Russian czar, and ultimately facing Satan himself.

The normal person certainly would not be able to identify with the lyrics; however, the theme of never-ending battle is one that fits the sound of the album like a glove. Crack the Skye is a storm of constant conflict, with only a few brief lulls at the beginnings of songs, before being thrown into the storm again. There is always a sense of forward progression, like a marching band that decimates everything in its path. The dual vocals of Troy Sanders and Brent Hinds have been significantly softened; rarely will you hear death metal-ish roaring that was displayed on songs such as “The Wolf Is Loose.” However, the cleaner vocal style fits with the more focused energy of the band, making the record sound much tighter and more menacing. In the past, Mastodon would rely on sheer aggression and power to carry their songs. That is no longer the case on Crack the Skye; the band always seems like they know what they’re doing, and their confidence shows through the menace they put into the performance.

If you’re even a casual metalhead, Crack the Skye is a must-listen. If you’re one of those types that doesn’t care for metal, this record probably won’t satisfy your desires, but it’s worth mentioning that fellow DW reviewer, Jesse, who is normally indifferent towards this kind of music, enjoyed the album. Casual rock listeners should approach this album with caution; metal fans can dive right in and be swept up in metal’s new biggest band.

3.75/5

Mitch (Axel)

Get on our wavelength