Three years have passed since Pelican celebrated their 10 year anniversary with the release of the LP What We All Come to Need. But that was also the year that saw the quartet finding full-time jobs outside the band due to the subsequent downturn in the US economy and “decline in sales in the music industry”, according to guitarist Trevor de Brauw.

They are now very much realists about changes within the music business, having been a full-time enterprise during the albums of The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw (2005), City of Echoes (2007), and What We All Come to Need (2009). Despite touring for a sizeable portion of the year during this period, half of the band had already relocated to Los Angeles. This is when they began recording in their own spaces and without scheduled rehearsal time. Any workable compositions and ideas would be forwarded to each other via the internet, and then eventually put together and finished off in a studio in Chicago.

If City of Echoes was shaped by the intense experience of touring, then Ataraxia/Taraxis was formed from the ability to compose in near-solitude, in an place away from pressures of studio time. Yet this long distance relationship hasn’t disrupted the creative flow of the band, who still seem to be facing in the same direction. As Drummer Larry Herweg has put it, the band are able to “kind of get a game plan of what to do so that when we are together […] we’re all on the same page right away”.

Without doubt the middle two pieces ‘Lathe Biosas’ and ‘Parasite Colony’ are very much what listeners would expect from Pelican. Multi-textured and heavy, this alternative “post-metal” echoes much of their previous work. Track durations on this release have shortened, which will be good news for attendees who find a 75min live set of 5 or 6 tracks a little too much to handle at once.

It’s the EP’s title tracks ‘Ataraxia’ and ‘Taraxis’ that offer a fresh dynamism to their sound, and it is perhaps these two that most reflect how the band are growing towards a new creative line. As well as the droning “aeroplane” intro to ‘Ataraxia’ (the sound of which remains throughout the remainder of the track), deft layers of acoustic guitar are juxtaposed against a few stabs of synthesiser and a brief stint of electronic drums. ‘Taraxis’ continues this theme with an even greater number of acoustic sounds being cleanly picked and ringing in your ears. A warbling electric lead guitar struggles to get its voice over the top of the eventual crescendo of overdriven chords and string bending riffs. These two tracks do pose a problem for the band, though: how would they incorporate the acoustic and electric live on stage?

[Originally published on TLOBF]

Some musicians and labels have accepted the changing face of the music industry: at some point their albums will almost definitely find a way on the Internet without their permission. But not many have audaciously been involved in leaking albums in order to gain publicity — at least not openly. In a crude and haphazard PR stunt, the Sumerian label and members of Born of Osiris apparently released a few edited tracks from the new album The Discovery, and then lashed out at any “pirates”, wishing they would choke on a cannonball and condemning the “cowards” to death by drowning.

It was in fact a joke — funny, eh? — designed to make it harder for people to spread unreleased tracks, by inserting fart noises and Charlie Sheen quotes throughout the tracks that were released. This must be the modern day equivalent of putting a loud beeping tone in the middle of the track, or even a robot voice telling you that you are listening to a promo CD. Although releasing fake copies of material is often done in all sorts of media formats to stifle sharing communites, there are few companies that would so quickly admit to doing so over a bout of arguing on Facebook.

Anyway, The Discovery is the Chicago based sextet’s third album on Sumerian. You could view this release as one of the current flagship albums for the label, if it hadn’t been slightly overshadowed by the recent emphasis on Periphery in the UK. But the band don’t really tread the same area as the former, and push the label in a different direction within a similar deathcore sound to Circle of Contempt and I The Breather.

The band are relatively popular with young guitar geeks. As Periphery leader Misha Mansoor has recently said: “I’d say that 95% of people who turn up to our shows are bedroom musicians or gear nerds like me […] Other bands get groupies; we get guys who want to know what string gauges I use or what programmes I record with.” Born of Osiris’ fanbase probably also fits this bill. Multiple threads on extended-range guitar forums have appeared discussing the bands transition from 6 to 7-strings (G# tuning according to the studio) as well as countless cover versions of old and new tracks appearing on Youtube.

Not only should this band be compared to others within the framework of current tech-metal, but also of peers in a similar group. In this respect, the youthful breakdowns of deathcore are mixed with a high degree of craftsmanship for their age, and compared to their previous releases a dose of maturity. Tracks such as ‘Follow The Signs’ and ‘Recreate’ ooze confidence, with the latter exhibiting an otherworldly and unique solo from guitarist Lee McKinney. There are obvious similarities to All Shall Perish due to fellow 7-stringer Jason Richardson’s involvement with both bands. If you take a listen to Awaken The Dreamers you will hear much of the same tight and aggressive polyrhythmic textures played during his time with them.

On other tracks that involve synths and keyboards such as ‘Two Worlds Of Design’, it can sound too, well, simple, and not developed enough. I am not expecting any virtuoso DragonForce playing, but sometimes these overdubs are just distracting. On the whole keys player Joe Buras weaves these parts together much more fluidly compared to previous releases.

Some listeners may think that the length of The Discovery will encourage others to finally get a good earful of exactly what the band is about and musically where they are today. In a sense the 52 minutes of material does give them enough time to include sections of abstract dance samples and to also pace the album properly, but by ‘Automatic Motion’ it just feels that you are listening to similar song structures — even ‘XIV’ is an interlude containing a reworked solo from a prior track. It is this occasional and deliberate repetition that brings this album slightly down.

[Originally published on OneMetal]

[Buy from Amazon]

Gatekeeper’s Optimus Maximus was a limited release of synth-tech that was both directed towards and influenced by the scores of John Carpenter films (and a few others). Its dramatic sounds were enhanced by a heavy swathe of reverb, arpeggiated minor chord synth lines and a strong backbone of techno beats. However, the main criticism of this was that the title track heavily sampled influential synth artist Synergy and his track ‘Trellis’. In fact it was a little tooborrowed and really resulted in some proto-industrial drums played linearly amongst the sounds of ‘Trellis’; it just wasn’t inventive enough for some.

Musically, within Giza there are touches of Cold Cave, The Hasbeens, and a gloomy Kraftwerk, but essentially Gatekeeper are now following their own path. The first track ‘Chains’ is a crazily morbid and addictive listening experience. It is a combination of 80s tech noir and sleazy EBM/industrial: it sounds like it could be the pervy step-father to the theme of 80s crime show The Equalizer.

If only the other tracks were oozing as much menace as this. Apart from ‘Giza’ the rest seem to be more filler than thriller, and although it does break the EP up into two neat halves it just doesn’t keep the pulsating momentum throughout. Both ‘Serpent’ and ‘Mirage’ are disorientating, with a mix of percussive noise and almost Gregorio chanting being loosely pinned down with relatively quiet beats.

Overall Gatekeeper seem to have more of a grasp of what they want to achieve, and this is furthered with he help of fellow Chicago audio-visual crew Thunder Horse to create a series of videos (also released as VHS tapes!) that will coincide with the release. Dan McPharlin (who did the artwork for The Sword’s recent Warp Riders) wonderfully captures this retro-futurist feel to the EP for the artwork.

[Originally published on TLOBF]

[Buy from: Amazon / Merok]