THE DOWN TRODDENCE: “HOW ARE YOU? WE ARE FINE, THANK YOU”

 Album Reviews  17 Responses »
Jan 102014
 

(In this post India-based guest writer deckard cain reviews the debut album by an Indian group named The Down Troddence.)

As the world turns a year older, as the cosmos realigns itself, as darkness dusts off its latest guise, humanity shall once again usher in a new age of depravity and violence. Sometimes faith is not always associated with religion, but in the gradual degeneration of the human race. 2013 bore witness to tyranny, unilateralism, despotism, and general wanton disregard. Just another page in the book of nations crumbling, economies entering concentration camps, diplomatic acrobatics, and brazen aggression. The passing of the year is just another point of reflection on human unity/irony. How we’ve all joined hands in lighting the fuse that burns ever so slowly, yet moving forward to that eventuality of lasting peace, with a scent of gunpowder.

But amidst all that unappealing chaos is this likeable and harmless variant. A manifestation of notes, tones, and patterns that has grown to become our lifeblood. Heavy music has forever kept our frustrations at bay and in a way made them enjoyable masochistically. It did so in 2013 and it will do it again in 2014, hopefully.

Despite listening to all those international releases, sometimes one does ache for something entirely homebred. Continue reading »

MISCELLANY NO. 62: EASTERN SPELL, HYBRID REALITY, HOLLOW BRANCHES, THE DOWN TRODDENCE, THOSE DARN GNOMES

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  17 Responses »
Nov 052013
 

We get messages every day from bands who ask us to check out their music. I wish I had the time to listen to everything that comes in, but I don’t. I don’t even have time to write about everything I hear that I like. But I thought for this MISCELLANY post I would write about the music of the last five bands who wrote us over the weekend. Obviously, there’s not much rhyme or reason to the selection, and as you’ll see, the bands don’t have much in common with each other.

But that’s the way MISCELLANY works: I pick underground bands whose music I’ve never heard, I listen to one or two recent songs, I write up my impressions, and I stream the tracks so you can make up your own minds. Here we go:

EASTERN SPELL

Eastern Spell are a group of hairy, doomy dudes from Portland, Maine. Earlier this year they released a single via Bandcamp entitled Entraced, and about two weeks ago they also released a video for the song. Eastern Spell bring the misery with seismic resonance. It’s slow, pulverizing music, with burly riffs, agonized, gravel-throated vocals, and a drummer who sounds like he’s trying to drive his kit straight into the ground. Deep into the 11-minute song, the band briefly rumble into more animated life, and there’s a surprising (and beautiful) acoustic finish to the song, but in the main this is suffocating sludge/doom — done very well. Continue reading »