OUR FIRST TASTE OF NEW PELICAN MUSIC

Photo: Lisa Shelley

Is Spin making a big play in the metal space? Last week they premiered the entire new Lacuna Coil album and today they’ve got a brand new Pelican jam, the first to be released from their forthcoming Atraxia/Taraxis EP, out April 10th. Not that it really matters who’s streaming the thing so much as it does simply that the song’s streaming somewhere; so what are you waiting for? Go listen.

My first thoughts on “Lathe Biosas” (Greek for “live unnoticed”) are rather superficial, but they’re my thoughts nonetheless: I don’t like the production.

Whereas 2009′s What We All Come to Need full-length and the Ephemeral EP released the same year had big, meaty production with a clear mix that occupied the whole sonic spectrum, the new track sounds raw in comparison and the mix is overly saturated with mid-range honk. Not that I’d expect Pelican to come out with something sounding like it was produced by Mutt Lange or mixed by one of the Lord-Alges, it’s just that I don’t understand the need or desire to take a step backwards after the wonderfully gorgeous-sounding aforementioned two releases. When you traffic in instrumental metal, the sonics are especially important. Maybe they recorded Atraxia/Taraxis on the cheap, hence the scaled down production, but still, listening to this after the past couple of records is kind of like taking a warm shower after you’ve just been in a piping hot jacuzzi.

In any case, the song itself is pretty good, I guess. I just find it incredibly difficult to turn off the part of my brain that focuses on the sonics. Check it out here and see what you think.

-VN

Thanks: Jonathan Delarosa