Crack The Skye

Metal, except for a weird Tony Iommi fetish, is not my cup of tea. I know squat about it. I'm hardly interested in looking up bands with names like Agalloch or Mastodon, or Opeth, or Dream Theater, or Meshuggah...

But those darn music forums...

Mastodon released in March their fourth studio album, something called Crack The Skye. I thought "meh! who cares?". Then I figured I might as well look it up and myspaced them. That's when I heard a song called "The Last Baron". Gosh. A thing of beauty. As if early Back Sabbath had mated The Strawbs. It's a crappy comparison, but for a folk-prog fan who happens to like Black Sabbath, it's miraculous that such music exist. I immediately needed that album (and actually got it along Heaven & Hell's The Devil You Know)

Turns out progressive metal is awesome.

There's no point trying to review it myself, as I don't know the band or the genre. I'm not even sure what the heck they're going on about. Something about Czarist Russia and astral travels.

The critiques are there already anyway, everybody says it (except for a couple of die-hard Mastodon fans apparently who think its their worst effort): it's just awesome. Find out for yourselves if you doubt it. All the tracks are awesome. And 10:54 minutes "The Czar", with 13:01 minutes "The Last Baron" are just freaking experiments in sheer genius.

Oh, and yeah, turns out Agalloch rocks too, so they'll be one of my next venture into the world of progressive metal.

Year Long Disaster

Of course, what did you expect? The first album and group I attempt discussing since my Kinks episode (which is not over, might I add) happens to be Davies family related.

Someone mentionned Year Long Disaster on a kinky forum. I myspaced them out of curiosity, and was certainly not expecting to love them immediately.

These guys are actually really, really good. Maybe there's just something about a trio, but this one happens to have a pretty great combination of intense, screaming vocals, great guitar riffs as well as a powerful (to say the least) rhythm section. And man, does it work. Soundwise, I'm talking Cream and Jimi Hendrix Experience quality trio.

What you need to know about Year Long Disaster is that they are Daniel Davies on guitar, Richards Mullins on bass and Brad Hargreaves on drums. Daniel and Richards first hooked up, then added Brad to their lineup (apparently because of a kinky coincidence: Brad had been rehearsing with Third Eye Blind to portray the Kinks on TV). The band was formed, they started touring, they got signed onto Volcom Entertainment, and released their self-titled debut in October 2007. And they have received plenty of approval since. Including being called one of 2008 best new bands by Rolling Stones Magazines, who says their formula is "Deep Purple X Pantera + Hipster-to-English Dictionary = Year Long Disaster" which I find actually pretty witty.

These guys are one of the many bands (like The Answer, for example) taking in the spirit of 70s rock into their music, and they might just be doing it much better than a lot of their contemporaries. Their sound has been compared to Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, sure, but I'd like to add at least The Stooges to that list of flattering comparisons, with the lovely "Destination" which reminds me of a couple of things off Raw Power. For my tastes anyway, this album has no weak track. It's loud, it's fast, and most importantly, it freaking rocks!

Oh, and hello? Swan On Black Lake? A beautiful piece of progressive sensitive work, complete with strings and acoustic guitar that is hinting that YLD despite all the rock has a softer, or more melancholic side, should I say (I could use "more serious" to describe the sound of that last track, but I won't, it would imply that I think rock can not be serious, and that's not true), that is just as pleasant for the ear as their edgier sounding songs. And as a minor proghead myself, I think it's safe to say we can expect even more brilliant material from this band, and can't help but wonder if we'll see them heading toward a proggier sound. It's almost been two years since their first release, so let's wait and see.