FALL OF THE ALBATROSS: “ENORMOUS CLOUD”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Jun 172014
 

(Austin Weber reviews the debut album by Fall of the Albatross, which had its full streaming premiere yesterday.)

Fall Of The Albatross are pretty much the second coming of the style of music played by defunct experimental mathcore fusionists Lye By Mistake, although Fall Of The Albatross amazingly draw from an even wider palette of sounds than the aforementioned eclectic group, and they do so quite expertly. While the band previously had a vocalist, they decided to soldier on sans vocals after losing him, leading to their current instrumental incarnation and the self-recording of their full-length debut now before us — Enormous Cloud.

Enormous Cloud is a lot of things at a lot of different times. But to try and break it down into its elements, you could say that they smash together lots of wild tapping, heavy-as-hell moments of pure Dillinger rage, split-second grind bursts, just the right amount of post-rock builds, some grooves, and polyrhythmic chugging that’s always paired with different combinations of riff/leads/sweeps/tapping and is never overdone. Meanwhile some of their rhythms and melodies certainly remind of math-rock at times, while their forays into jazz, Latin, funk, blues, and fusion slide in and out of this ever-changing mass.

Jarring though some of the transitions are, the songs all manage to have a unique identity, flow, and structure. This is very progressive and dense instrumental metal indeed. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FALL OF THE ALBATROSS — “LIMERENCE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
May 292014
 

(Austin Weber provides the following introduction to our premiere of a new track by Fall of the Albatross from Queens, New York.)

The bewildering experience of taking in Fall Of The Albatross is overwhelming at first, as they are masters of splicing chaos and calm to form intricate dynamic webs and make every bit of it fit together perfectly. For those who’ve missed my previous posts here regarding the band, they are a highly eclectic instrumental metal band with a focus on blowing your mind. The June 24th release of their new full-length, Enormous Cloud, draws ever closer, and thus another song premiere is in order.

Which brings us today to the adventurous journey contained within “Limerence”, a song that churns out planet-smashing math core, stuffs it with a fluffy jazz filling, and sneaks in sublime swelling post-rock builds as well. They arrange the opposing styles expertly to split-second ping-pong off each another brilliantly. From vicious tempo changes to unwinding solitude, this song encapsulates the essence of the record — no boundaries. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FALL OF THE ALBATROSS — “LIKE A GOOD TORNADO”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Apr 202014
 

(Austin Weber provides the following introduction to our premiere of a new song by New York-based Fall of the Albatross.)

Fall Of The Albatross are a band I’ve covered before at NCS, having previously witnessed their diverse chaos live and written about it here. The group used to have a vocalist but later became an instrumental-only band, as they were when I saw them. The music you will hear below is a taste of their new sans-vocal style from their upcoming full-length, Enormous Cloud, coming out on June 24th. This is wildly original, next-level instrumental metal, concocted from a plethora of different genres and styles, with the elements arranged against each other in unique, non-linear ways.

I’m a sucker for song titles that perfectly capture the essence of the music, and when you hear “Like A Good Tornado”, you’ll understand that the title expertly encapsulates the splendidly spastic, whirlwind nature of the song. That the title defines the music as a good tornado is a key point of distinction, since tornados are typically bad — and this is anything but! Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: PUTERAEON, VANHELGD, MISERY INDEX, DAWN OF DEMENTIA, FALL OF THE ALBATROSS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Apr 012014
 

Here we have another round-up of new music to recommend for your aural pleasure. I’m splitting this quintet with one of our other writers, Austin Weber. I’m introducing the first three items, and he’s got the other two after that. Here we go:

PUTERAEON

I’ve massively enjoyed this Swedish death metal band’s last two albums, The Esoteric Order (2011) (reviewed here) and Cult Cthulhu (2012) (which I miserably failed to review). They’ve now completed another Lovecraftian-inspired album entitled The Crawling Chaos, which will be released by Cyclone Empire on April 25 and features chilling cover art by Christoffer Fredriksson. The band recently released an official video for the album’s third track, “Path To Oblivion”, and I caught up with that today. You should catch up with it, too.

The music is like a hard-charging phalanx of ghouls and golems, a ghastly and galvanizing gallop of gore-strewn gruesomeness. The crypt door has been flung wide open, and all manner of unholy, undead things are coming for your teeth. Continue reading »

ESCHATOS, CRYPTODIRA, FALL OF THE ALBATROSS, LEFT IN DESPAIR: LIVE AT HAYMARKET WHISKEY BAR (JANUARY 14, 2012)

 Concert Reviews  4 Responses »
Jan 202014
 

(Austin Weber turns in the following show report, and we are once again grateful to Nik Vechery for the kickass photos accompanying his write-up.)

A few weeks ago I worked with a Long Island based group named Cryptodira to premiere their new EP An Unmarked Grave here at NCS. So when I found out they had tour plans that included a date in my hometown of Louisville, I knew to call photographer Nik Vechery, and the plan was set to cover the show.

Nik, as usual, spent the night drinking piss-poor PBR’s while I imbibed some higher-class microbrews that I’ve previously enjoyed called Zombie Dust and Gumballhead. Both are made by Three Floyds Brewery based in neighbouring Munster, Indiana. Each beer has a strange hop that features a unique (to my tastebuds) mango aftertaste that is mouthgasmically sublime.

I also met one-time guest NCS contributor and frequent commenter This is The News aka Tom and his wife, who apparently also reads No Clean Singing. But enough about beer and interwebz-real-life collisions, there was a show after all. What follows is a live music assessment formed by yours truly, the hermit hornswoggler. Continue reading »