Archive for the ‘These Arms Are Snakes’ Category
Top 5 Records of 2008 (Jon Pinkus)
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5. Fucked Up – The Chemistry of Common Life
Many Fucked Up fans were disillusioned by how many rules of punk rock were broken with this album. While the vocals still sound as dirty as ever and the energy is still there, the songs are much longer than punk songs are supposed to be, the guitars are massively layered, atmospheric, and the entire album seems drenched in reverb. The record somewhat echoes early Sparta material, but with a more bizarre, jagged approach. From the first jolting scream to the drawn out feedback closing the album, «The Chemistry of Common Life is one of the most engaging listens of the year.
Fucked Up – Son the Father
4. The Mars Volta – The Bedlam in Goliath
The Mars Volta are the most well known act in the world of intense progressive rock, and with this album the band has renewed its title as king. Bedlam surely is not a major departure from anything they’ve released previously, but it is the most intense encapsulation of the band’s abilities. Almost as if to apologize for the droning, anti-climactic nature of Amputechture, this album is relentless from start to finish, with a momentum that barely takes a breath for the entire 75 minute assault.
The Mars Volta – Metatron
3. Beast – s/t
This Montreal band has been touring with You Say Party! We Say Die! on a relatively unsuccessful tour that seemed endless up until now, but with this new record they have finally broken out. Falling somewhere between Nine Inch Nails, RATM, Portishead, and Muse – it’s Alternative, Hip Hop and Industrial, all tied together by the intense and all encompassing voice of Betty Bonifassi. Though one or two tracks on the album drag on, it’s strength is in powerful epics like Fingerprints and Devil. A must-listen of 2008.
Beast – Fingerprints
2. Portishead – Third
It seems like every album we`re so priviliged to get from this band is more incredible than the last (sadly Portishead does not adhere to the “album every two years” rule). But this isn`t 90s trip-hop anymore, this is 21st century Portishead. Songs like Machine Gun are darker and more haunting than ever before, but others like The Rip are some of the most beautiful songs ever written in the world of alternative genres. This album blends both jarring and pretty sounds like few records I have ever heard in my life.
Portishead – Machine Gun
1. Brazilian Girls – New York City
Behold what I would argue is not only the best experimental/alternative album of 2008, but the best record of the year, period. Exotic, intense, beautiful, sexy, bizarre, and mindblowing. It`s hard to put to words what this album does to you when you listen to it, but you may be a different person for listening all the way through just once. An incredible live act, and an equally impressive studio band, Brazilian Girls are exactly the kind of boost the alternative world needs in this unprecedented oversaturation of bands lobbying for our attention.
Brazilian Girls – Nouveau Americain
These Arms Are Snakes – Tail Swallower and Dove
Earlier this year, post-hardcore experimental rockers These Arms Are Snakes released their newest installment to their discography, Tail, Swallower, and Dove . While in the past, most of the excitement has centered around building to a climax of chaos, the new album focuses a little more on trying out new sounds, ambitious rhythms, and mesmerizing textures.
In other words, rather than taking a path that led to explosive climaxes armed with brainbending guitar and bass riffs, the new album is a little more akin to something from The Jesus Lizard. In a way this is a good thing, since it makes the listener feel more like they’re experiencing an album, rather than listening to a high fidelity recording of a live performance. If there is one thing Tail, Swallower, and Dove is in no shortage of, it’s groove. From the first track of the record (which might just be the best Jesus Lizard song never written), the songs instantly immerse the listener in a driving (often non-changing) beat. In many ways, the album is a sequel to the epic Easter, the lyrics are still cryptic, the bass and guitar seem to be in constant role reversal with each other, the intensity is there, and every song unquestionably is backed by the band’s signature ambient vibe. The mood on this album however is darker than usual, more sinister, and at times it doesn’t even sound like the band is playing in a small room, as opposed to an auditorium…or castle.
The band makes heavy use of the pump organ and microKORG throughout the album, and throws creative noises and effects in every inch of every song. While most bands will use effects as a brief moment of excitement or interesting way to introduce a part of a song, These Arms Are Snakes will actually make a riff out of it and build the entire song around it. Perhaps there is no better example than the super compressed synth bass that opens Lucifer, mixed higher than any part of the song, carrying throughout. Just another example of a bass riff by Brian Cook that would even make Chris Wolstenholme (Muse) jealous.
Though the album feels somewhat transitional, it is a more mature effort from a band making great strides in the world of post-hardcore and rock music in general. It will be exciting to see where it takes the band in the future.
3.5/5
Red Line Season by These Arms Are Snakes
Woolen Hearts by These Arms Are Snakes
