 Dredg
"El Cielo" CD
Interscope
Records
Genres: alternative rock, metal, alternative metal
Interscope
2220 Colorado Ave.
Santa Monica, CA 90404
Mar 17 - 23 2003 |
As
far as guilty pleasures go, you can't really go wrong with Dredg.
Not only are they reasonably obscure, but their music is really easy
to like. And while sometimes they sound like they're taking
themselves a bit too seriously - and occasionally they become a
bit too mainstream-y for comfort - it's still pretty darn fun to just
lie back, listen, and (why not?) sing along.
Dredg have an interesting style. Kind of like a
mixture of metal and alternative rock, the band rely strongly on
guitars and those spacey, passionate vocals that characterize
emotional alt rock tunes. They have a very melodic style,
working their way around wonderful riffs and infectious hooks as if it
were a second language to them. But that's not all. Beyond
their alternative metal learnings, they also take influences from all
corners of the musical planet.
For example, songs like "Triangle" and "Sorry But It's
Over" boast definite progressive rock tendencies, whereas other
tracks run the gamut from being positively spooky ("Scissor
Lock") to positively exotic (the ethnic chants of
"Brushstroke: An Elephant in the Delta Waves")".
Other tunes, like "Same Ol' Road" and
"Convalescent," are just so catchy that they stay in your
head for weeks. And I mustn't neglect to mention that the band have
incorporated a number of little interludes (or
"'Brushstrokes," as they call them), which are short little
pieces played on instruments like the piano, the violin, and the
cello.
Altogether, Dredg's El Cielo is definitely worth a
shot. Pick a copy up the next time you're in a record store,
give "Eighteen People Living in Harmony" a listen, and see
if you can resist the band's allure. Yeah, didn't think so.
85%
Fun Fact: "El cielo"
means "the sky". Except in Spanish. But you knew
that already, didn't you?
Matt Shimmer [Vitals:
11 songs, distributed by the
label, released 2002] |
