EXCELLENT SMOKE-WORTHY RELEASES FROM TIDES AND PERTH EXPRESS ON TEENAGE DISCO BLOODBATH RECORDS
Teenage Disco Bloodbath Records may be a mouthful to say, but whoever is signing bands over there is doing a helluva job — we finally got around to releases they sent us a couple of months ago (yeah, yeah, we’re late, I know) and we’re really, really impressed. After the jump we take a look at German aggro-stoner-metallers Perth Express and their way trippier Rhode Island-based labelmates Tides.
Perth Express – Discography
Discography comes in an all-black cardboard digipak with only gold enamaled silk-screened print; this should give you some kind of an idea of the kind of aesthetic the German band Perth Express is going for. Discography is a whirlwind of aggressive stoner-metal and raw punk energy, most of its 23 tracks clocking in at or below the 2-minute mark. Think Mastodon if Mastodon never strayed from the raw force of “Blood and Thunder” and “The Wolf is Loose” and continued to bludgeon you over the head with monster, dischordant riffs all the time and low-rumble Neurosis sludge. Breakneck tempos occasionally yield to groove-based slowdowns with assymetrically angular lead-guitar dissonance, which is a beautiful thing. Sometimes the band does take it down a notch as on the sludge/doom track “Heidepark Soltau.” Vocally Perth Express sounds like Troy Sanders on a crack rampage with the rest of the band members chiming in with well-timed shout-alongs for emphasis. Ultimately, though Discography is a collection of songs from several prior releases — and, even though every song is short — it gets bogged down a bit by its length and the band might have done themselves a favor by whittling down the 23 tracks to their favorite 12-15. Either way, the band shows a whole lot of promise and will undoubtedly slay any audience they encounter once they make it over to this side of the pond.
(three and a half out of five horns)
-VN
Tides – From Silence
If Perth Express take Mastodon’s heavier side and rev it up then the Rhode Island quartet Tides take Mastodon’s slower side and and slow it down even further. Make no mistake about it, this is music to get very, very stoned to, so be sure to smoke a fatty before you indulge in Tides’ assault of aural sweetness. Sludged-out Sabbathian guitar riffs and echo-heavy Floydian leads criss-cross over intricate, off-time drum patterns that are both the perfect mix of challenging and accessible as a first-time listener. The foci of Tides’ music are the sonic textures created by electronics, effected guitars, and the way those elements lay into the overall framework and composition of the songs. The songs build tension by going back and forth — though never in a predictable manner — from quieter, ethereal parts to heavy, epic crescendos. Tides don’t seem all that concerned with being heavy, but they succeed remarkably in doing so anyway, with tempos and grooves so slow but so punishing that you can’t help but headbang. Tides might lose a few listeners due to their lack of vocals, but by and large the fans to whom this kind of stoner-metal would appeal won’t be put off by it at all. My only complaint? This CD only has 3 songs on it.
(four out of five horns)
[Tides on MySpace] — Ed: None of the songs on From Silence are on their MySpace.
-VN
