03/14/06 @ 12:13:02 pm by archivesadmin
By: Ben Brown
Nightmerica
Love Equals Death
Fat Wreck Chords
Love Equals Death, a California-based punk band with a creatively-devoid moniker, formed after the break up of Tsunami Bomb, another weak Fat Wreck Chords money maker. Making a point to inform everyone they formed on Halloween night gives them a glob of Hot Topic gloss atop their plain-wayne brand of rock’n’roll-influenced eyeliner punk. And, hey, it’s okay to play what thousands of other bands have already perfected. If you’re happy playing what you play, and you truly dig the sound, that’s fine with me. But Love Equals Death decided to place themselves in a position where my claws come out.
You see, they describe their music as “a raw sound that twists all the best elements of both classic and modern sounds into something entirely new.†Aside from the cheap and easy description, they had to go and dub their sound “entirely new.†“Entirely.†How about we all take a field trip to their MySpace profile and have a listening party with tracks from their new cd, Nightmerica.
Here’s what we’ll hear: textbook riffs, marginally impressive guitar tricks and whiney-can-be-tough-too vocals. Oh, and those lyrics! Let me guide you into the realm of LED’s “entirely new†form of genius. Here’s some fool’s gold from their song “At War With Myself†(a bonus track on the promo I received): “I feel so alone here/I got to find a way out/I just don’t belong here/The situation makes me want to shout!â€
Sometimes bands feel it as an obligation to promote their music as “a new twist†or as “cutting edge,†and sure, it’s a way to get noticed. This particular scene of bands, in which the “horror punk†term is commonly thrown around, seems to have the worst addiction to the delusions of originality, primarily because there’s money to be made.
As presumptuous as this is going to sound, just looking at the cover art of Nightmerica lets the consumer know exactly what s/he is getting. It’s an oh-so-scary image of a zombified little girl (whose concept seems to be modeled after the girl from The Ring), in front of a chaotic black-and-white landscape, with a ghostly American flag flying in the background. It’s what you’d expect from a horror-punk band that is dying to let you know they formed on Halloween. I, personally, am dying to tell you how much Love Equals Death sucks, and if that makes me just as insecure and nit-picky, I’ll take it.
Mr. Beast
Mogwai
Matador Records
The mellow-smoothness of Mogwai’s Rock Action (2001) and Happy Songs for Happy People (2003) is continued with Mr. Beast, and while it’s more accessible and could easily develop a wider listenership for the band, it will, once again, satisfy the demands of the cultists who crave this reliable, mostly-instrumental act.
Over the past few albums, the piano has gained more of a starring role in their music, which has driven the quieter end of Mogwai, but as fans have come to expect, there’s always a volcano blast of guitar and drums to dramatically cut the somber downbeat. To you Mogwai fans, there’s not much more to say. You know the sound and you love it, and here it is, once again.
For those not so oriented, Mogwai was conceived in Glasgow, Scotland, 1996 and have steadily been issuing EPs and albums of (as mentioned) mostly-instrumental, spacey, beautiful music that dives into slow, relaxing motions, before spastically surfacing to screams of bottom-heavy guitars and energy. They’ve always had an incidental music feel, like they’re following the ups and downs of a dark screenplay. Sound cheesy? Don’t let it be.
Mogwai is a band that can appeal to serious musicians, critics and laypersons alike. While my favorite album is the early-staged Young Team, they’ve yet to bore me with their acknowledged formula and routine.
Null
Intronaut
Goodfellow Records
From the promotional one-sheet of Intronaut: “the most crushingly genius songs ever put to tape.†Whoa! No kidding? Let’s hear it.
Okay, okay, got the CD in my hand, putting it in the player, and hitting play. Hmmm. Well, it’s metal, and I’m not seeing what the big deal is. Breaded with generic, modern double-bass, detuned metal and dipped in Neurosis sauce, Intronaut’s publicist has demonstrated his overexcitement for a not bad, but completely average band.
For those interested, Los Angeles’ Intronaut is a cocktail of members from Uphill Battle, Exhumed, Impaled and Anubis Rising. The band began as a side project, but after excitement generated from a four song EP, the members chose Intronaut as their primary focus. Null is the re-release of that bubbling EP, and the band promises a wave of new material throughout the year to come.
I do have to admit that while Null is far from the greatest music ever captured, it does have its moments where the band thinks independently and steps out of bounds for the sake of experimentation—all while remaining truly metal.
It’s funny to think of this working, and maybe the band had other intentions anyway, but there are parts, both in melody and style that remind me of Cajun music. I know, it sounds ridiculous, but the ear hears what it hears and that’s what my brain interpreted. The tones have twang at times that, coupled with the slappy strumming, have that traditional sound that I don’t commonly hear in metal experimentation. It works.
Maybe this is a bit too picky, but I think Intronaut could have gone with cover art that made the insert look less like a hip seafood restaurant menu, but hey, outside the box right? And it’s the music that matters here. At least they didn’t travel the popular road of placing on the cover an attractive female, holding a blood-soaked butcher knife or something to that effect.
So all hype aside, Intronaut, despite their sub-imaginative name, is something for metal heads to look into. It’s reliable and, for the most part, safe, but they stretch with just enough creativity to make them notable.
Categories: General
