Dead Sun Over Black Sands

Sólstafir - Svartir Sandar
Sólstafir is a band who has come a long way in terms of their artistic ability and musical intentions. They began as a Viking metal band, then morphed, as many Viking metal bands tend to, into an arty black metal band. Since then, they've gradually added more post-rock tendencies a la Mogwai or Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and now on their newest album Svartir Sandar, they've reached a new height of artistic mastery.

Sólstafir have been masters of building atmosphere since their excellent first LP Masterpiece of Bitterness, and they've always grafted that atmosphere to pummeling metal textures, making an art rock/black metal blend that sounded like no one else. Svartir Sandar is certainly heavy, but in a much different way than its predecessor albums. This heaviness is built very carefully, with nuance and fantastic attention to detail rather than speed and fury. Paradoxically, it feels like the album's passion comes from its precision, as though each chord and drum hit were carefully placed to perfectly build the drama and emotion necessary to each song, while making it all seem natural and effortless.

When considering arty post-metal, names like Isis, Neurosis, and Pelican immediately spring to mind, but Sólstafir's sound is entirely their own, perhaps owing to both their Scandanavian black metal background and the isolation afforded to them by their native Iceland. It's possible to hear the influences like The Cure, or some of the bleaker 90's rock bands, or perhaps even their countrymen in Sigur Rós, but the overall tone is so sunless and monolithic that it has to be heavily informed by the blackest of metal. The guitars range from gentle to vicious, the thundering rhythm section equals the guitars in their ability to bring the emotional content forward, and singer Aðalbjörn Tryggvason's voice pulls itself from a near whisper to a despairing wail at a moment's notice.

Words largely fail to describe the scope of what transpires over the two discs that make up Svartir Sandar. The sound is immersive, nearly cinematic. It's easier to describe the album as a place that one can go. It's like a continent, huge and dense, but with room to move. Moments that begin as just a wandering guitar line or steady cymbal beat evolve over time into a maelstrom of sound that evokes an atmosphere both unknown and somehow familiar, like a place you may have been in your more monochromatic dreams.

-Review posted by TZARATHUSTRA

King of the Dogs

Cory Branan - Mutt
Mutt is an apt description for singer-songwriter Cory Branan's newest album, as it's got a little of everything, all mixed up according to Branan's specifications. This is Branan's third LP, and he's thus far made a reputation on solid albums featuring his expressive wordsmithing and excellent guitar skills. Some fans, myself included, first heard of Cory from the Lucero song "Tears Don't Matter Much," which name-checks a number of the band's musician friends by name. Branan may be buddies with the boys in Lucero, but his sound bears little resemblance to their ragged-voiced country punk. He tends to be somewhat more varied, jumping around from sound to sound to fit each individual song, which makes it no surprise that he chose the word "Mutt" as the album title, since he's long been using it to describe his sound.

It's true that overall, Mutt has a rural feel that offers a nod to his Tennessee background, but nearly every track contains something that you didn't expect, and in many cases it's the entire song. "The Corner" starts things off with delicate fingerpicking and features Jon Snodgrass of Drag the River fame providing backing vocals. "Bad Man" finds Branan doing his best Springsteen with fine results, the track "Snowman" takes a trip deep into Tom Waits territory, and "Yesterday (Circa Summer 80 somethin')" shows that he's been giving Mellencamp a spin or two. He could be simply aping some heroes, but it comes off as more than that. Branan knows that an album doesn't have to be twelve songs that all sound pretty much like the lead single, and he intends to take advantage of that. He's trying his hand at sounds and styles that he's not used before, and though some songs here are emotionally heavy, it still sounds like he's having fun making his music the way he wants it.

Mutt is Branan's most musically accomplished record to date, and his writing has never been sharper. Check out a solo performance of "The Corner" that Cory did for a recent Nervous Energies session below:

Afghan Whigs Release New Song

The recently reformed Afghan Whigs have released their first new recording in five years. The new track, called "See and Don't See" has just the sort of creepy, slightly obsessive sort of feel you want if, like me, you've been missing the Whigs in their absence. They debuted the song live on Jimmy Fallon on May 22nd, and you can download the track for free at the band's website.

-posted by TZARATHUSTRA

Cory Branan Streams New Album

Tennessee's best kept secret, Cory Branan, will release his newest album Mutt tomorrow, but you can stream it in it's entirety here. Branan's previous releases have been filled with expressive songwriting, excellent guitar playing, and Branan's own blend of country twang and rock and roll, so expect good things from this album. Expect a full review very soon here on RFF.

-posted by TZARATHUSTRA

Darker Days, Indeed

Tragedy - Darker Days Ahead
On Darker Days Ahead, the still very underground crust/hardcore/metal/whatever unit Tragedy has expanded its usual speedy D-Beat assault to include a feeling of cinematic grandiosity and touches of outright doom metal. Actually, doom is the keyword for this entire release. Tragedy is building a world with Darker Days Ahead, and that world is dying slowly. The songs are vignettes of burned out cars, collapsing buildings, and toxic sunrises.

At one point Tragedy could be called a hardcore band, but their music has been alloyed with so many interesting sounds outside of the hardcore template that there's not really a category for them anymore. The band has a steady roar all its own, and despite the influences from so many different places, they manage to turn it all into a cohesive whole. Of course, for the most part the guitars are thick and nastily distorted, and the drums are pummeling, even at slower speeds, and the vocals might not actually be human in origin. But while the D-Beat feel, and the necessary debt to bands like Discharge that come with it, are still present, the tempos have a tendency to slow down more on this album, and clean guitar and bass tones (gasp) can be heard in many of the songs, where they create instrumental textures far more melodic than Tragedy have released before.

There's a sinister alchemy at work with these new elements, where they add up to paint a picture even more bleak than they could have done by simply thrashing away. There's shades of old Godflesh albums on this release, and it's all done to great effect to create a crushing hopelessness. There is no redemption on Darker Days Ahead. Things are not going to get better in the world that's presented here. For Tragedy, the light on the horizon is just the glow of irradiated desert. They're letting you hear what the end sounds like, and it's so impeccably crafted that you can't help but listen.

-Review by TZARATHUSTRA

Zero For Conduct

OFF! - OFF!
Looking at the corner that hardcore music painted itself into in the first decade of this century is enough to give one pause. How could a style that was so charged, so visceral, back in the early 80's become so incredibly boring? From the chugging "metal-for-morons" one-finger chords, to the monotone barking vocals, to the sad, predictable breakdowns, hardcore became not just formulaic (even the 80's heroes sometimes fell victim to that), but actually quaint. There's not much danger in most contemporary hardcore, except possibly the danger of getting smashed up against a sweaty, shirtless fat guy at a show. The breakneck speed and manic, unstoppable thrill has gone.

OFF! wants to correct that problem. The new self-titled album from the band is a whirlwind of chaotic hardcore fun with all the energy of the glory days, and that's to be expected with Keith Morris, formerly of Black Flag and the Circle Jerks, at the mic. There's no genre-splicing here, no dabbling with metal or reggae or pop. This is less than thirty minutes of pure punk rock fury, and for as dirty and violent as the music is, it's surprisingly refreshing. The nice thing about this release is that while you can hear Black Flag or Dead Kennedys in the sound, the record doesn't feel embarrassingly dated. It's simply a fun hardcore record that acts as something of a palate cleanser from all the watered down angst that carries the "hardcore" moniker these days.

In true hardcore fashion, many of the songs clock in at less than a minute, but they feel fully formed, complete with spastic lead guitar work thrown in occasionally by Dimitri Coats from the band Burning Brides. In fact, OFF! is something of a punk rock supergroup, as the lineup is rounded out by Redd Kross bassist Steven Shane McDonald and Rocket From The Crypt drummer Mario Rubalcaba. The classic hardcore pedigree is completed with cover art from longtime Black Flag collaborator Raymond Pettibon. Every punk I know wishes for a return of the SST/Dischord hardcore sound, and here's a good solid dose of it.

-Review by TZARATHUSTRA

A Remedy of Diesel and Dust

Hot Water Music - Exister
Gruff punk legends Hot Water Music have returned after eight years, and a lot has happened in that time. Chuck Ragan wandered off to remake himself as a gravel-voiced folk troubadour, and founded the increasingly popular Revival Tour, which showcases the acoustic talents of a rotating cast of punk rock heroes. The remaining three quarters of the band formed The Draft, a vastly underrated punk project, after which Chris Wollard released a strong solo album, bassist Jason Black worked with Senses Fail, and drummer George Rebelo spent some time behind the kit for Against Me! after Warren Oakes left the band. With everything that they've done in the interim, it's surprising that the new Hot Water Music LP, Exister, sounds like no time at all has passed between The New What's Next LP and today.

Which is not to say that the boys haven't learned anything, because it's obvious that they have. Chuck Ragan's folk interests and Chris Wollard's solo efforts have clearly informed their sense of melody, which is stronger than ever. It's just that the elements that made Hot Water Music distinguishable, the intertwining guitar lines over rock-solid rhythms with the twin-voice attack of Ragan and Wollard, are still very much intact. It's as if they slid back into their sound like a broken-in leather jacket.

Nearly every song is a highlight, and that's not hyperbole. From the charging intro of opening track "Mainline," to the classic sounds of the title track, to the huge bass groove and oscillating guitars of "No End Left In Sight," there is very, very little to complain about on this record. Perhaps it contains a bit less aggression than the records of the past, but considering the sound of The New What's Next, and the focus that the songwriters have put on melody in their solo projects, it's hard to see why that would be a surprise, and considering the quality of this record, it's hard to see why it would be a negative. It's a rare feat to pull off a reunion record that's not only good, but doesn't involve any comeback grandstanding or smarmy winks to the audience about the circumstances of their return. Chalk it up to Hot Water Music's unflagging sincerity that they decided to simply make an excellent rock record like Exister and let it speak for itself.

-Review by TZARATHUSTRA