When I think about music in Colorado, I picture John Denver getting off stage and receiving a lit joint from Dave Matthews, the headlining act, ready to tear it up in front of a sunset on a mildly frosted mountainside. Further in town, the walls of a house are shaking because in the basement Deer Creek is drilling to hell with their epic american doom metal.
Do they have delay pedals? You bet. Does their drummer know exactly when to finally hit us with some mountain-solid double bass? Finally, yes. Some of their riffing can get repetitive, but I give them a pass because it's so catchy and sludges so well. Melodic vocals in metal can be a real deal breaker for me. Often they're too clean and christian, or they're too hyper and power metally. You know, almost happy. Paul from Deer Creek hits that sweet spot; lifeless at times, but never weak, and never ignoring the value of creative phrasing.
On the other side of this tape we have Ice Troll, who I don't know as much about. They play instrumental ambient metal, which can be really cool, but I think ambient music lends itself too easily to songs without structure; songs the band didn't think were worth memorizing. It's cool if you can play well and make cool sounds, but Ice Troll just keeps rocking out at the same pace, with no surprises and no hooks. Heavy muzak. Low effort songs played by good musicians.
This tape can be bought here.
No comments:
Post a Comment