The Goslings
"Grandeur of Hair" CD
aRCHIVE recordings
Genre:
drone metal
Aug 5 2008 |
And the Goslings return with their best album yet. There's a
reason this Floridian duo, comprised of husband and wife Max
and Leslie Soren, have become such highly regarded noise
purveyors - and this devastatingly powerful yet strangely melodic
album makes that point clearly enough. Having enlisted a number of
friends to help out with Grandeur of Hair,
particularly on the percussive end of things, Soren &
Soren have come up with the band's rockiest album to date. Indeed,
this record is a grim, destructive force to be reckoned with - its
eight tracks are macabre jolts of abrasive and
grueling energy, the type of stuff that will make for any drone
metal enthusiast's supreme indulgence.
Exhibit A: the rolling boulder that is "Own a Car," which submerges
Leslie's creepy approximation of the "Are You Afraid of the
Dark?" theme in a virulent miasma of guitar feedback and hellish
percussion. Even more appalling is the wondrous odium that arises out
of "Overnight," a salaciously enduring slab of almost tribal drone
metal that's matched perfectly with Leslie's strangely blissful
voice. These vocals reach their most
accessible in the dramatically melodic closer, "Dinah," which reveals
a relatively unexplored but certainly appealing side of The
Goslings. Meanwhile, the album's chaotic climax is also its
lengthiest composition: the completely harrowing "Haruspex." Its title
a reference to the ancient Roman practice of inspecting the entrails
of sacrificed animals, this thirteen minute experience is a grisly
death march that matches grumbling
guitarwork and mythic vocals with an ever-pulsing explosive beat. As
you might expect, this wasn't designed for the
faint of heart, nor the weak of mind. But intrepid listeners
please note: Grandeur of Hair is another step forward for
The Goslings, a band that is rapidly
climbing the ladder of drone metal importance.
the goslings' myspace
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Matt Shimmer
[Vitals: 8 tracks, distributed by
the
label,
released 2007] |
