Saturday To Whet Your Beak

August 9th, 2014 at 7:56pm
Kip Wingerschmidt

Last week I went to move my car one day and discovered that it had been showered in pigeon shit. Not just one or two little splotches — I’m talking the entire windshield and hood was fully covered in ample blobs of doo-doo. Ever the optimist, I reminded myself of the widespread theory that bird droppings falling on you is oft considered good luck, and I took my poor car’s new coat of white stains to signify that positive things are a-coming.

In a similarly holy-bird-poop-on-your-shoulder fashion, my serendipitous discovery of Let Time Begin, the forthcoming debut full-length album by rising Chicago band Beak has me thoroughly excited — the album is seriously hitting me in a private place I usually reserve for urination or sexy time, and upon first listen immediately became one of my favorites of the year so far.

Ever since we lost our beloved ISIS (although rest assured, they’ll surely be back at some point for a “reunion” tour, Shirley), there have been plenty of copycat attempts out there but very few groups that could stand deservedly alongside the soundscapes of the greats in the post-metal subgenre, so it is refreshing to stumble across a band that does just that and plenty more — and yet it’s difficult to reduce Beak to a simple “post-metal” categorization — the band manages to build heftily upon the Neur-Isis bit by adding an increased sense of melody and rawness throughout, purveying an increased sense of uptempo aggression that its commonly mellower forefathers rarely dabbled in.

Unfortunately you’ll have to wait a little while before you get to hear Beak’s stellar debut full-length Let Time Begin (due out on 9/23 via Someoddpilot Records). However, in the meantime you can enjoy “Light Outside” (the first song released via a recent exclusive track premiere on The Onion’s AV Club). Building off the critical acclaim of 2012 EP Eyrie, Beak’s forthcoming album will blow your proverbial socks off so keep a close eye out for more tidbits in the near future.

Polly want some metal?

Some people might say that heavy music is for the birds, but I find my interest renewed by forward-thinking bands like this — so dust off the falcon gloves and get ready to cook some quail……it’s muthafuckin’ BIRDTIME.