“I’m three reviews in and, having begun with an unexpected but wholly welcome 3.5, I then slid through a decent 3.0 to a rather disappointing 2.5. Is Australia’s Zeahorse the band to halt the slide with their third full-length outing, Let’s Not (and Say We Did)?” Zea the pattern?
It’s late in the year, and list season is upon us. For the past eleven months, trying to keep up with all of the quality extreme metal has felt like trying to drink from a fire hose. The volume of stellar releases has only multiplied in recent weeks, and for every one I manage to catch, three more stack up on my “get to” pile. So with all that metal practically begging for my attention, now seems like the perfect time to take a break from it. I was unfamiliar with Buildings when I chose Negative Sound from the promo pit, but its tag of “noise rock” and distinctly non-metal artwork seemed the ideal pallet cleanser.” A clean pallet is a terrible thing to taste.
“Being a Prong fan can be a confusing exercise in cognitive dissonance. I am acutely aware of their many musical shortcomings, and yet I keep coming back for the awesome riffs and mosh-worthy aggression. The band’s track record with other people’s songs is pretty bizarre, and when I saw the tracklist for their covers album Songs From The Black Hole, my initial reaction was equal parts glee and dread. This has the potential to either be fucking awesome, or hilariously bad.” Read along as Mr. Fisting attacks the black hole that is an album of cover tunes by Prong.
““Anyone with a deep record collection will understand that Strangelight aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel, just taking the dust jackets off the old classics and melting the vinyl down for fun.” This, together with the name Fugazi, pretty much sums up the review of this EP. The rest of this page could be used to appeal for donations to the Flying Spaghetti Monster movement and nobody would complain. Any other lost cause worth campaigning for? But we’re good people and we can’t help but say a few other things. Like, for instance, that when you mention Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto’s band, you are implicitly referring to that musical trend which, from the late 1980s onwards, literally changed the way we see, consider and think about indie music. Thus, providing the listener not only with the musical attributes, but also with the exact artistic context is a mistake, because disappointment is always behind the corner and it will stitch you up at the first occasion. But Strangelight are a bunch of confident people.” Alex breaks down where this “super group” slots into the musical neighborhood and how their arrival raises or lowers property values therein. It’s all about location, people!
