Arc of Ascent straddle the stoner/doom divide like sentient giants, spiritual lion tamers of a beastly Kyuss/Sleep hybrid, a crooked staff in one hand and a whip in the other. Their 2010 debut, Circle of the Sun, was a bold and fuzzy big top spectacle, and follow-up The Higher Key is definitely a continuation of the same spacey show, but it’s not the thick, groovy riffs or the the psychedelic effects that mark this new album as a must-experience circus. No, instead it’s the strong voice of bassist Craig Williamson that sparks this comet’s fire, a soaring furnace of hypnotic melody with just a hint of dastard caterwauling, not unlike one Messiah Marcolin if the robed night stalker presided over asteroids instead of gravestones, and it truly separates the New Zealand power trio’s acid blast of narco-metal from the deluge of monolithic mayhem with which it might otherwise get lumped.
Caustic Casanova Someday You Will Be Proven Correct
Mad Love Records
Caustic Casanova are tricky business. A quick perusal of their physical product and you might think, like I did, that you’re not going to have time for these noisy scholars and their songs with titles like “Your Spirit Festooned on the Bedposts,” “There is No Need for Grammar on the Moon,” and “A Campfire of Your Own Awe,” and generally you don’t, but sometimes you gotta give some geeks a chance (because, like me, you are one too, deep down). Thankfully, this Washington trio has a set of balls on ‘em and aren’t afraid to heavy up their sweater n’ corduroy nerd rock, and so their sophomore album, Someday You Will Be Proven Correct, while strongly influenced by the hipster alt-rock of the 90s, is much more than college circuit fare. While opener “The Space Needle” might remind you of a more aggressive Sonic Youth, it’s the mid-album combination of “Short Commute, Live Forever” and “Infinite Happiness” that steals the show, a couple of melodic bulldozers in the vein of the Melvins, Torche, and Helms Alee. The album eventually winds down with some uber-indie incandescence (“Bulwark” and “The Unfathomable Heart”) and an experimental distraction (“17:59″), but when it’s all said and done, Caustic Casanova find a way to pack quite a punch into their pretension, ensuring that Someday You Will Be Proven Correct is good enough for girls with bangs and greasy beards like me.
Check out the video for “Short Commute, Live Forever” from Someday You Will Be Proven Correct!
I prefer to review albums the year they are released in order not to appear dated, but sometimes albums find their way to me the following calendar year. I respect the effort (and, in some cases, money) bands put into sending me their music for review, so the least I can do is give them some blog time. Here’s a quick run through some music that was released in 2011, because it’s never too late…
Black Rainbows Supermothafuzzalicious!!
HeavyPsychSounds Records
The title of Black Rainbows’ third full-length should be enough to break the handle right off yer crank, but in case you need extra convincing, this is some hot-as-the-sun Italian boogie doom from a power trio who are dwarfed only by the stacks through which they blast this dynamite rock. They sounded a lot like Kyuss on their 2007 debut Twilight in the Desert, but they’ve since molded their raw and green stoner sound into something heavier and bluesier, which means they now stomp and howl like a Small Stone band junked out on stardust and motor oil. Oh yeah.
Shooting Guns Born to Deal in Magic: 1952-1976
Self-Released
Instrumental psych-metal from Canada’s Shooting Guns, whose magic dealin’ dates should give you an indication of where they mined the fuzzy nuggets that fill this black sack ’cause the whole thing sounds like a 60s-fried stomp through a field of bear traps in foggy moonlight. Take the hairy doom of “Dopestrings” and “The Last Great Depression,” the acid drone of “Harmonic Steppenwolf” and “Liberator,” and the weird garage of “Public Taser” and “Stay Awake Forever” and you’ve got a debut full of toxic nocturnal emissions that’ll jangle your mind just right.
Listen to Born to Deal in Magic: 1952-1976 right here!
Re1ikt Reki prabili liod
Vigma/BMA
I don’t know how to pronounce the band’s name, nor do I know the translation to any of the song titles or lyrics, but what I do know about this Belarusian band is that they’ve put out a slew of releases since 2008 and their 2011 effort, Reki prabili liod (which I do happen to know means ‘rivers broke through the ice’), is a daunting and epic blend of post-rock and progressive metal with some folk influences mixed in (like their chilling cover of “Rana na Ivana,” a traditional Belarusian folk song). Reki prabili liod contains all the melodic darkness of a Swallow the Sun without any of the death, which I suppose will remind you of bands like Russian Circles or Red Sparowes. With an Eastern European twist, of course.
Check out the video for the song “Reki pad ildom” here!
Arc of Ascent
Caustic Casanova
Black Rainbows
Shooting Guns
Re1ikt