In the annals of Greek mythology Talos was a giant bronze automaton, created by the god Hephaestus at the direction of Zeus, who gave Talos to the king of Crete to protect the island from invaders. To do so, Talos marched around the island three times every day and hurled boulders at approaching enemy ships.
At his core, Talos had one long vein running from his neck to his ankle, where the vein was closed shut by a bronze bolt. Within it flowed a mysterious life source of the gods that the Greeks called ichor. Talos met his end in the tale of the Argonauts, when the sorceress Medea induced Talos to dislodge the bolt, causing the ichor to flow out, exsanguinating him.
We summarize the tale of Talos because it is the conceptual core of the self-titled debut album by The Giant’s Fall, a Greek project that’s the experimental solo work of Mikebass (ex – Lucky Funeral & Bone To Rust) and whose name itself seems connected to the myth. The album’s song titles themselves point to the connection: “Ichor”, “Dark Inside”, “The End of Talos”, “The Giant King”, and “Hades Calling”, although it becomes clear that the album’s themes aren’t limited to the myth.
The Giant’s Fall was first released digitally by the band in December 2018, and then digitally by FYC Records on December 25, 2022. But FYC Records will also be releasing a limited CD edition of the album on February 28th, and to help spread the word we’re now premiering an official video for the album track “Dark Inside“.
The song is long and spellbinding, a combination of genre ingredients ranging from doom and drone to psychedelia and hints of cool jazz that’s both heavy and ethereal, both ominous and mysterious. To achieve this effect, the music contrasts the deep drone of rasping subterranean undulations, glittering keyboard reverberations, and quavering high-pitched sounds that sound like ghostly voices — backed by the sharp rhythmic crack of the snare.
As mentioned, the effect is hypnotic, but it also creates a feeling of tension and peril, as the song’s title portends. High searing tones intrude, along with manic percussive bursts, trippy warbling arpeggios, buzzing tones that swarm at the mind, and weird electronic radiations. The tension builds, the bass-pulse quickens, a guitar flickers like a frightening fever. It sounds like a mystical calamity… but drifts away into an oceanic dream.
The video created by Mick Alexandrakis (Black Screen Graphic Arts) is every bit as spellbinding, and ultimately harrowing, as the music itself, and also seems to connect to the album’s tale.
The album as a whole creates an even more deeply immersive and disturbing trip, using a similar array of ingredients — and more, including some perilous, hook-laden riffs and a stunning excerpt from a speech by Martin Luther King in “The Giant King” (I think it’s from his April 1967 speech “Beyond Vietnam — A Time to Break Silence”) — to create a simultaneously neck-cracking, mesmerizing, and unnerving experience.
Like the album’s chief protagonist, it can sound gigantic, but also inhuman and spooky. It clangs and claws, shivers and stomps, and pours hallucinatory psychoactive substances into the ears (its own ichor). The impulse to bob your head is irresistible, but it also sends tingles of fascination and fear down the spine and warps the mind.
To create the debut album Mikebass performed guitars, bass, drum edits, keyboards, and synths. He also handled the recording, mixing, and mastering. Credit for the cover art and logo goes to Apostolis Michailidis (Amis) Tolee Meeha.
On February 28th FYC will release the album in 4-Panel Digi CD format, limited to 100 Copies (50 of them to be accompanied by an embroidered logo patch), along with merch. For more info, check the links below.
FYC RECORDS:
https://fycrecords.com/
https://fycrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-giants-fall
FOLLOW THE GIANT’S FALL:
https://www.facebook.com/thegiantsfall
https://www.instagram.com/thegiantsfall