Our metallic bro BadWolf e-mailed me late yesterday with news that NorCal’s Giant Squid has a new album on the way, with a new song posted for streaming. On the one hand, Giant Squid’s music isn’t my usual kind of thing. If you amalgamated various genre tags that the band itself uses, I think that would be a fair description: post-metal-art-doom-rock-sludge. I also have trouble with Aaron John Gregory’s quirky, high-pitched, occasionally screechy style of clean singing.

On the other hand, the music on the band’s last album (the only one I’ve heard) — The Ichthyologist — was original, unpredictable, and uninhibited, and I can respect that, even if it hasn’t seen many plays on my iPod. Plus, I do like the band’s use of down-tuned sludge-chords in juxtaposition with airier melodies. Plus, there’s that album cover for the new one, Cenotes, which is due for release on October 25 on Translation Loss Records. Fucking great, weird piece of art, also created by Aaron John Gregory. Plus, we’ve already gone off our usual beaten path today with that deathstep thing.

After the jump, you’ll find a player that will stream the first song to be released from Cenotes, “Figura Serpentinata (Pycnopodia sapien)”. The track list for the new album, plus streams of the band’s previous discography can be found at their Bandcamp page or their facebook. Continue reading »