GIANT SQUID STUDY FISH, RECORD OCTOPUS

In 2006, San Francisco’s Giant Squid released Metridium Fields, which is, to put it mildly, a fucking doozy of an album. Lucky for all of us, then, the band has just completed work at that record’s follow-up, as singer/guitarist Aaron Gregory tells us in a press release:

“Giant Squid just finished a grueling seven days of recording in Seattle’s Litho Room studio with highly regarded producer, Matt Bayles (Mastodon, Isis, Pearl Jam), and will return in September for another six days to finish tracking and mixing at Bayles’ personal studio, The Red Room. The results so far have been incredible. Our new album, The Ichthyologist, is just over an hours worth of music, ten full songs ranging from immensely heavy riffs to other worldly melodies that Giant Squid is known for. Bayles is a true master of his trade, and the rough mixes already sound beautiful. We can’t wait to hear how our music will come across after he’s finished having his way with it.

“Giant Squid will be self releasing only a thousand physical copies of The Ichthyologist, available only through the bands website, giantsquidlives.com and our myspace page, myspace.com/giantsquid, along with digital versions of the record available for purchase as a download as well. Hopefully, we can find a solid label to release a full vinyl version simultaneously. We’re shooting for a January 2009 release, so wish us luck and keep checking in to see how it’s coming along!”

Only a thousand physical copies?! Holy crap, I guess the future really is now.

And, oh yeah, if you’re wondering what an ichthyologist is, well, apparently it’s someone who studies fish. I know because I looked it up. Who says you can’t learn shit here at MetalSucks?

ANYWAY, all us GS lovers will get ANOTHER dose of the band later this year, ’cause they’ve recorded a cover of Syd Barrett’s “Octopus” (not quite a squid but close I guess) for Dwell Records’ Like Black Holes in the Sky: The Tribute to Syd Barrett. Jesu, Jarboe, Kylesa, Intronaut, Dredg, and whole bunch of other MetalSucks-approved artists are also on the album, which means we’re pretty much gonna have to give it a listen.

I really, really hope that this is the year Giant Squid get the recognition they deserve.

-AR