REVIEW: SHROUD EATER - DEAD ENDS

I have fond memories of discovering Floridian doom trio Shroud Eater when I first became acquainted with Bandcamp, listening to their ThunderNoise album while my sanity was flaking away like dried mud during an overnight shift. Their newest release, Dead Ends, significantly raises the bar and blasts them into the elite class of the stoner/sludge/doom genres. I don’t consider this shit-talking, but this album sounds like what a lot of people hoped Kylesa would release this year.

From the first rumbles of “Cannibals,” Shroud Eater welcome the listener into their appropriately dim, muddy audiosphere, with Janette Valentine’s bass tuned so low it’s like a dog-whistle made just for Cthulu. The (mostly) instrumental song sounds like summoning a gigantic beast from the black waters of a deep-sea lair, or maybe a psalm for some stoner deity, pleading to rain LSD down into the smoke-exhaling mouths of an hallucinating tribe. Felipe Torres’ percussion provides feral energy and hypnotic groove as “Sudden Plague” prowls forward, sprinkling in some elegant melody that sits atop the back of the song’s enormous sound like a brightly feathered bird on some tusked beast.

The sound on Dead Ends is so full and projects nearly supernatural size with its monolithic riffs that it’s difficult comprehending only three humans making the noise. It feels like it would take a cyclops herd or a band of morose swamp giants to create music this massive. Valentine and guitarist Jean Saiz both share vocalist duties, often joining in ethereal harmonies that remind me of John Baizley’s bittersweet melodies. “Lord of the Sword” and “The Star and the Serpent” both imitate waves crashing harder and harder against a shore as the music builds to a storm, which is fitting since the album’s tremendous single is titled “Tempest.” “Tempest” is a head-banging cruise on a battered warship through razor-waved waters infested with fanged squids. The song’s in turns pummelling and entrancing, clearing the fog with mystically reverberating clean guitar before sinking back into the murk as the mist rolls back in. Despite my affection for doom I’ve never warmed up to drone, but Dead Ends expertly uses drone hypnosis to build a stage strong enough to support the Kongh-heavy riffs.

With flashes of psychedelic lightning to match their ear-punching thunder, this is one storm you wish would last longer than 28+ minutes. And for the ultimate irony, for an album called Dead Ends, this album absolutely feels more like a black-iron gateway to a thousand different paths. No matter which one Shroud Eater takes, we’re all in for future storms we can look forward to.

Stream Dead Ends over on Bandcamp here and see why I’m making such a huge fuss over this album:  http://shroudeater.bandcamp.com/album/dead-ends-2

And check out their official website, with gig/merch information:  http://www.shroudeaterrocks.com/

REVIEW: KYLESA - ULTRAVIOLET

We all suffer from demons of defilement at some point. I won’t pretend to totally understand the ins, outs, and what-have-yous of the Kilesa Mara mentioned in Buddhism, but they seem to represent the factors that delude us and cloud our minds, like greed and ignorance. Kylesa were named after some of these strong forces, but after listening to their newest album Ultraviolet I don’t think the music is suffering from any of these “mind poisons.” This is a daring, expansive album building from their psychedelic crunch and double-drummer pummel , full of large ideas and progressive melodies. Unfortunately, with great experimentation comes a varying degree of success. Still, you can’t make progress through the forest without stepping into a few ditches and bear traps along the way.

The familiar sludgy Savannah stomp roars from the opening seconds on “Exhale,” featuring the best tandem vocal work on the album as Laura Pleasants and Phillip Cope trade barbed lyrics with venom and conviction. The song feels like riding red waves on a splinter of driftwood, surrounded by sharks and figuring out how you’re going to kill all these finned bastards with the guitar on your back as your only weapon. Opening with the most vicious song on the album may make what follows slightly disarming for those seeking more of the same mud and blood. But clearly those listeners weren’t paying enough attention to the moments of light in Spiral Shadow, because those seeds of melody have blossomed here, an album later. Sure, there’s the massive stoner riffs of “Grounded” and the excellent bong-blitzed burner “Vulture’s Landing,” but most of the album is more pensive, brooding, and eases forward with entrancing rhythm and nearly oxymoronic bright melodies that paint the black’n’gray sky with strokes of turquoise and (ultra)violet.

Some of these songs work beautifully, like the Porno For Pyro smoking hesher hash vibe of “Quicksand,” and “Low Tide,” which captures spacey new wave pop that could get the goth kids at the nearest cellar night club two-stepping. Others struggle with delivering the melodic undercurrent without distracting from the main pull of the song, or worse yet, murder the momentum. “Steady Breakdowns” suffers from the latter, kicking off with witchy occult rock before vanishing into smoke and space dust as the song loses focus. “Drifting” is just a mess, unfortunately closing the album with a bombardment of disagreeing parts played with the enthusiasm of a guilty elegy. The overall results may be inconsistent, leading to frustrating so-god-damn-close moments where you understand that sometimes less is definitely more, but it’s also fascinating and inspiring. Beneath the proggy spazz-outs and the lightning strikes of pop melody this is still a loud rock album, just one that values patience and excitedly experiments with tone. In the middle of the record Pleasants sings that “You have lost your soul.” After listening to this record it’s clear she’s not singing to a mirror, because Kylesa is displaying more soul and courage than any previous recording, even if it doesn’t pound mountains to dust like Static Tensions.

Listen to Ultraviolet now on Spotify and check out Kylesa over at Season of Mist:  http://www.season-of-mist.com/bands/kylesa

And check them out on Facebook. With over 47,000 likes it’s not like they need you, but I heard they think you’re cool and funny and stuff:  https://www.facebook.com/KYLESAmusic

ART: BRITTANY BINDRIM

With the newest issue of Kung Fu Breakfast less than a week away (this month’s theme: Tales of the Internet), I was privy to a sneak peek at the cover art by Brittany Bindrim by editor Jay Kantor. It’s maniacal, pulpy, and gorgeous. Much like last month’s cover from Caitlin Anne, this is the sort of art that makes me proud to be a part of such a dynamic, exciting publication.

Brittany is an artist, musician, entrepreneur, and graphic design guru who is the founder of Black Dove Design Company and the songwriter/vocalist of I:Scintilla, a band that defies easy genre categorization but flirts with synth pop, trip-hop, and indie electro. She has a versatile illustration style but I have selected work by her that I think matches the overall aesthetic of this blog: Macabre, creepy, and beautifully stark. She’s a striking talent and her work would be perfect for a variety of metal styles. I could see her designs as a cover for anyone from Kylesa to The Dillinger Escape Plan.

(PRO TIP: CLICK PICTURES FOR A LARGER  VIEW AND MORE BAD ASS DETAIL.)

Brittany says of her artwork,  “I honestly cannot remember a day that art was not in my life. At an early age, I found a way to escape reality and get lost in the dreamscape of creating art and have lived there ever since. With compelling vision and true passion, I aim to create memorable and meaningful illustrations with magical realism. Working as a graphic designer and art director for over 6 years has given me an innovative design sense to construct elaborate images and nurtured my bold graphic style.

“My latest body of work consists of pen and ink illustrations drawn with obsessive organic detail. These pieces have been fueled and inspired by dreams and nightmares, anxiety, the streets of New Orleans, the poetry of Charles Bukowski, conspiracy theories, and the horrors of the 9 to 5. I have been hypnotized by the pen to create rich black and white surrealist imagery. The organic vines and veins repeated in the work symbolize a complex and puzzling interconnectedness we have with the one another, nature, and the modern world.”

Check out more of her art and design work and find contact information at:  http://www.blackdovedesigncompany.com/

Prints of her amazing work can be purchased here:  iscintilla.imagekind.com

And listen to I:Scintilla’s music, streaming over at:  http://www.iscintilla.com/?page_id=8

I:Scintilla are releasing a new EP on May 3rd. You can check out a preview track here:

https://soundcloud.com/iscintilla/ruin

Many thanks to Brittany for allowing me to share her work! I will post links to the next issue of Kung Fu Breakfast when it’s officially released so you can all marvel at her mind-frying skill.