LP Review: "Mere Mortals" by The Lumberjack Feedback

Mere Mortals

It's been over three years since the mighty Frenchmen that people The Lumberjack Feedback have been inside of my ears with new songs.

They're a band that's really hard to describe, but that are ever so good.

Their last album, Blackened Visions, is in vinyl rotation in my house. It's an absolute gem of an avant garde instrumental record.

Now, they have returned and they have added...

I'm not going to say vocals, because they're still an avant garde instrumental band, but perhaps they're a touch more focused.

Really, I should have listened to the aforementioned Visions record before writing this, but there was a Blues hockey game on the TV last night and my family loves hockey.As The Lumberjack Feedback is French, they probably don't much care for it, because they're French French and not French Canadian.

There's no perfect adjectives to describe their sound and no adverbs that can relate to how they're creating that sound. Their songs allow the listener to check out of their head and fall into the natural vibrato and reverb.

It's easy to get lost in there.

RELEASE 4/26/19 BANDCAMP FACEBOOK

LP Review: "The Veil of Darkness" by Gorgon

The Veil of Darkness

Recently, somewhere I saw a statement that the best thing about metal is always feeling like a newbie due to all the content out there.

When it comes to Black Metal, and definitely 2nd Wave, that describes me quite well.

Today I'm considering the upcoming release by Second Wave Black Metallers, Gorgon. They're wholly unfamiliar to me.

Even though I know better, the term Black Metal still conjures up images of Dimmu Borgir or Cradle of Filth to me, even though that's a single subset.

To begin, The Veil of Darkness is an absolute achievement. It's a very mature version of nascent 2nd Wave Black Metal. The guitars, though lacking in dynamics, create several different moods.

There's a call and response feeling to the vocals featuring a single person. The drums bring the whole record into focus. Without a drumming playing sensitively to the rest, this whole disc would fall apart.  Amazingly enough, this whole album was done by one man.

This should definitely be on your preorder list for the New Year.

RELEASE 1/25/19 PREORDER FACEBOOK

LP Review: "Lost Empyrean" by Dirge

Lost Empyrean

It's late November and The United States is headed towards Thanksgiving 2018 on a brighter path.

Late Autumn though, it's a good time to be alive. The world has turned grey. Mother Earth cannot decide whether or not she wants to be snowy, rainy, cold, or sunny.

November is when we all must make our choices. This year, we have more of the cold than the warm. I'm thanking all of the gods in all of the pantheons for that.

Veteran Parsian post-metal-sub-doom-with a side of death rockers, Dirge, have created the perfect soundtrack for the coming winter and the previous year.

It's been four years since they've graced the world with an album, and this one is worth the wait. It's slow, plodding, and swirling. Too many bands try so hard to be fast, heavy, and thick that the music takes a backseat to the heavy.

Lost Empyrean starts slow and thin, but builds to a crescendo. It's never overly heavy, never too mellow. It's standing pat in the upside down. Dirge has created a record to get lost in.

Take your time with it. My paltry description will never give you the sense of having heard this masterpiece of a record. Get it. Listen to it. Pay attention.

RELEASE 12/14/18 BANDCAMP FACEBOOK

LP Review: "Viscères" by Bind Torture Kill

Viscères

In an attempt to move forward and explore different genres today we're looking at Post-Hardcore.

This is new to me, so an exploration of what all of this is feels essential.

Hardcore Punk is punk rock that's harder and more aggressive than regular punk rock.

OK, this all seems rather simple and understandable. Punk Rock though, is pretty aggressive, so in my head, it would appear that Hardcore Punk is the link between Punk Rock and Grindcore.

Now, let's move onto Post-Hardcore.

It's described as something more creative and artistic than Hardcore and Punk Rock that incorporates essences of Post-Punk and Noise-Rock.

LP Review: "Time" by StoneBirds

Time

Let's have a very silly conversation for just a moment, if you don't mind.

What's the most important thing you can take away from music?

There are so many different types of music that can take the listener into all sorts of places. In This Modern World, the mash up has been taken to the next level.

This past weekend, we attended the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's Family Concert and they mashed up athletics and music.

Does a strong tempo and rhythm make a song magnificent to you? What about the spaciousness of of progressive music? Does tightly packed metal and hard rock create the ultimate experience?

Split LP Review: "Split" by Grim Van Doom and Cult of Occult

Split

My daughter, who's been a bit spoiled over the years being not just an only child; but also the only grandchild on both sides of the family, has a hard time making choices.

When she's asked do you want to get this or that, her most common response is BOTH!

It's something that's grown a tad tiresome over the years if we're being completely honest about this situation.

It's clear that my little one wants to have her cake and eat it too. Is this really such a bad thing? Well, only when you're trying to teach her about life I suppose.

Lots of us, especially those of us in the Western World, abhor choice and prefer to just get it all. Normally this isn't really an acceptable option and we have to make that decision that we'd frankly prefer not to.

LP Review: "Sacraments to the Sons of the Abyss" by Ritulization

Sacraments to the Sons of the Abyss

In their fifth season, Star Trek The Next Generation had a spectacular episode called A Matter of Time.

This episode revolved around the Enterprise working as hard as possible to save a planet from imminent destruction, because naturally, the planet's population lacked the foresight to, you know, start evacuation of said planet.

Well, lo and behold a time traveler from the future arrives just as they're working towards saving the planet under the guise of wanting to witness  this historic feat.

As the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise are the best and brightest in Starfleet, they finally ferreted out what was really going on.

The man was in fact a time traveler, but from the past and not the future. This criminal was attempting to rewrite history with his hand being far more deeply involved than it should have been.

LP Review: "The Night Has A Thousand Eyes" by Chicken Diamond

The Night Has A Thousand Eyes

My apologies for my absence as of late. Life has a way of throwing you curve balls when you're looking for the heater.

It's easy to think about childhood. It's a care free time that many of us look back to as we inevitably age.

Personally, my life has been an interesting series of twists and turns that has led me to something that was simply unfathomable in my twenties and early thirties.

Keep on, keeping on and we can all improve our stations in life.

But all daily affirmations aside, during my halcyon days, the thing that really turned my crank for music was the quality of musicianship. Things like garage rock, punk rock, and even blues never were really on my radar, which is funny considering the company I keep in 2016...

Album Review: "Panacea" by Sektemtum

Panacea

One of my Christmas presents was the first two novels in the Cormoran Series by JK Rowling under an assumed name.

Much like the Harry Potter novels, one can never see what's coming down the line the first time through, no matter how obvious it seems on the second read.

There have been some amazing movies like that as well. Abre Los Ojos by celebrated Spanish director Pedro Almodovar comes to mind.

It would seem though, this kind of storytelling doesn't always work. How many my fine readers love The Big Lebowski? After sitting through that eight hour opus, it's got some some great lines, but it's not a great story. It's too unfocused. That's the trap many varied artists fall into when they create an album that's all over the place...amazing songs, but an unfocused album.

Album Review: "Apex III (Praise For The Burning Soul) by Mars Red Sky

Apex III (Praise For The Burning Soul)

Thank you for reading all about new music here at Glacially Musical.

This blog was started as a way to communicate to the world that music didn't stop getting recorded when Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd broke up.

Many complaints of the current group of elder gaseous emissions, i.e. my personal age group, state things such that they have heard everything before.

Well, of course you've heard everything before. There are only so many notes and so many keys. Every single one of them has been used, but  here's a cracker of a fact that may have escaped the aging Gen X'ers. Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Kiss, The Rolling Stones, and any other band you can name, not only played notes that other people played, but drew inspiration from other artists!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the big acts of classic rock borrowed licks and chord progressions from their forebears too.

Album Review: "Dimensions Obscure 12" MLP" by Cadeveric Fumes

Dimensions Obscure 12" MLP

Music is the most ubiquitous art form in the world today.

When we clean the kitchen, our phones are playing. When car manufacturers and dealers want to sell us our next automobile, they play a song in order to catch our attention.

Is it even possible to conceive of a baseball game or a hockey game without some sort of music blaring during the stoppages, either via organ or canned tracks?

There is a genre of music called Ambient Black Metal. As pretty much a non-fan of black metal, this kind of music really gets to me....because it's beautiful.

What if there was another kind of ambient metal based on say, death metal? It would certainly have to be very different from standard death metal though wouldn't it? Surely there is no band that could bridge the gap in today's music scene.

Album Review: "The Chris Rolling Squad" by Chris Rolling

The Chris Rolling Squad

How many times have you heard the blues?

It's a musical genre that has gone farther underground than any other in the world. I believe that in 2016 it's "cool" to say you listen to the blues.

Is there a generation growing up that thinks the genre began with Jack White or the Black Keys? (Note: both groups are awesome.)

There is something truly beautiful about using sadness to combat itself. I suppose it's like using a depressant (alcohol) to chase the blues away?

There are times hearing a blues tune is like hearing it all for the first time again. Keeping the flame alive can be largely attributed to the English Blues scene. When it was dying out in America, the English picked up the torch, but what about the French?

Album Review: "Friches Et Bestioles" by Neurococcyx

Friches Et Bestioles

Basically what I do is sell air.

Remember that scene in City Slickers when Billy Crystal's character was talking about how he sold on air ad time for a radio station when he was discussing how unfulfilled he felt at work?

Think about all of the thousands of bands out there are doing just that?

Naturally, I don't mean this in a bad way! It's a whole other world out there. Some people in this great big marble we call Earth prefer no physical copies of anything. Movies, books, music, video games what have you. They want digital.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I have purchased digital things too. My most recent digital purchase was Dungeons & Dragons Shadow Over Mystara to play it in English on the Wii U. My copy was for the Sega Saturn and in Japanese and my daughter wants to know the story!

Album Review: "Voix" by Aluk Todolo

Voix

I do my best to get down to Powell Symphony Hall on North Grand in St. Louis, Mo.

Orchestral music is so powerful

There are few stars, but many faces. There's the conductor of course, who many, myself included, may have a bit of fun at their expense...

The first violin. I don't quite understand what the star power there is, but they're always mentioned in the program and get an extra special moment to bow.

Then there's the music!

It's big, lush, and as powerful as any death metal concert. There's a reason why metal took on a classical influence in the early 1980's, people.

No one would ever say though, I'd listen to the symphony more if they had someone singing.

Album Review: "Blackened Visions" by The Lumberjack Feedback

Blackened Visions

There was a time when you could walk into a record store and see a logo and know if you'd have any interest in that band by just what label put it out.

For me...Elektra Records was a big one. Two of my favorite bands were on that label: Metallica and The Doors.

They were both there from a bygone age though. That was when there was an owner of Elektra, Jac Holzman. If memory serves, he personally signed The Doors.

Nowadays though, it's harder and harder to do that in a record store. Especially since the big labels are all about Adelle, Katy Perry, etc.

Recently, in the big store in my city, I looked for stuff I was interested in on vinyl from my favorite labels, and I didn't find a single record by any of those labels. That's why I buy them through their online stores I suppose....