Album Review - Mockingbird: S/T EP

Do not judge this book by the cover, Mockingbird is neither pretty nor petite. And this mockingbird doesn't become redundant, merely mimicking the other birds' tunes. This Mockingbird is composed of four Ohio musicians with "...the personal necessity to create and break from the chains and illusions that confine our limited everyday senses". Beginning as a trio in 2008, Andy [Strickland], Chad,[Beverlin] and Mike [Faucher] decided to add depth to their sound in 2009 by adding another guitarist, Tom [Muron]. Taking on the D.I.Y. ethic Mockingbird ventured to Columbia, South Carolina's The Jam Room Studios to record their self-titled debut.

What was conceived was this... a groovy-doom laden self-titled EP that runs approximately thirty five minutes in six tracks. Yes, it goes by quickly, but this shoe-gaze induced doom metal is of the highest quality and will certainly have a mesmeric effect . Andy and Tom's guitars are layered thick and groovy, driving five of the six tracks. The vocals emerge hauntingly in sequence with the instrumentals, yet flood each song in passionate agony. The bass' foundation is prominent throughout each track and combined with the brawny percussion creates a thunderous stampede, but never overpowers these musicians solidarity.

With a quick roll of the snare Puma Puncu is underway and immediately Mockingbird is telling a story of affliction and trauma. The vocals are truly striking here and throughout the remaining three minutes of Mockingbird's opener. Burdens, like most songs on Mockingbird's EP, gets straight to the sludgy business that keeps us coming back. Around the one minute mark we're blasted with the hum of an Australian wind drone and the track quickly gallops into a limber drum pattern. Burdens then transfers fluidly back into a sludgy trough and an addition of well placed guitar squeals keeps the track versatile. The EP closes with the unpredictable and enchanting Trained Apes. Breaking away from the visceral charge of songs like Puma Puncu and Burdens, Trained Apes is focused by the plucking of a single electro-acoustic guitar, while a psychedelic bubbling, laughter, and howling delight. The most memorable iota to this extraordinary instrumental piece is the sound of the sliding of the strings between note and chord changes, sowing a very intimate and human heart inside this pterodactyl-sized Mockingbird.

The guys keep very busy touring, playing with genre-defining acts like Unsane, Jucifer, Mouth of the Architecht, and Fistula. They will be playing with the Heavy Planet favorite, Lo-Pan at the Bloomfield Bridge Tavern, Pittsburgh this Saturday (14 April 2012), if you're in the area check them out and pick up a CD. If not, one can be purchased at Innervenus and Hellville Records. In the mean-time, check out this extremely well performed (and shot) video of Puma Punca live at The Rock Room.

Members:

Andy Strickland - Guitar / Vocals
Chadd Beverlin - Drums
Mike Faucher - Bass / Vocals
Tom Muron - Guitar

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Album Review: Pelican - "Ataraxia/Taraxis" (EP)

These bands we love, what they do to us. It's fair to expect Pelican to shift, drop, or fucking boil down completely. We've seen it from lesser bands. We still love our metal, our post-metal, our anything-heavy-enough-to-drown-our-incredibly-awful-day metal. Pelican's been our safety for far too long, and I'm sure they're fucking tired of hearing that. What they've also been is a consistently proficient and focused instrumental quartet within a metal landscape riddled with inflated egos and ridiculous over-indulgence.

With 2009's What We All Come To Need, Pelican cemented their sound, their audience, and their expansive and seemingly endless borders. There's no safe categorization, no easy assumption. Pelican have paid their dues, garnered their accolades, and continually amazed countless listeners with an amalgam of progression, power, and potency that (sadly) other bands no longer drive toward.

So it's easy to assume, with such lofty expectations thrown upon Pelican's shoulders, they'd steer the course and provide loyals with a complacent contract obligation-type record and play the game. Hardly. This Ataraxia/Taraxis EP demonstrates both the band's fidelity to longtime loyals and their open arms to fresh ideas. Pelican do more with this EP's eighteen minutes than most bands do with a greatest shits collection's double disc. Yes, I said "greatest shits" because Creed is performing in my state (also Pelican's) this week and my only defense is self-induced vomiting.

Ataraxia hovers just above your consciousness with a cool, buzzing atmosphere until that jet descends under Bryan Herweg's bass grumble. Pensive, honest, and pretty fucking spooky, the electric piano/xylophone measure is desperate and elastic enough to tie together every element of every Pelican moment without detracting from what lies ahead. Less an intro than an omen, we're welcomed into a dream sequence that flirts with tonight's nightmare. It's gonna tickle your pre-frontal cortex and stick with you beyond your breakfast.

Pelican are at their pinnacle when they balance the technical with the absolutely fucking beautiful, which has never been more evident than on Lathe Biosas. Guitarists Laurent Schroeder-Lebec and Trevor de Brauw trade choppy stutters with drifting harmonies, and Larry Herweg's drums punctuate with endless ellipses humming a subtle thunder. The fuzzy, post-metal drone threaded throughout the track is refreshing and draining, and the bounce is never cartoonish or spoiled. These notes will drain listeners for days.

Pelican utilize Parasite Colony as a reminder that they're still Pelican, but they're willing to shorten the stroke and sweeten the spark. Buzzing, candy-coated riffs and rhythmic jams are strewn with an ambiance that lays your jaw to the ground with a slow-motion push. This is an accomplished, sand-caked progression toward ever-escalating volume and scope, the band's trademark throughout each song, every album, and their entire career.

Taraxis bookends the EP with a cool pick and perhaps the bracing of an impending winter. The distant guitar plucks manage to stay grounded and allow an unsettled screech to emerge. There's pain here, evident by the succession of melodies and penultimate buzz. The pause is hardly a relent. As we're met by fewer sounds, listeners detect more intensity. The incredible fusion of crunch and evanescent beauty likely marks this as 2012's best exit.

Ataraxia/Taraxis is only the most recent in a string of Pelican's assertions that they lead the pack of instrumental outfits. At times illusory and other times heavy, this EP is considerably expansive for its brevity. Pelican's musicianship remains unmatched. The contrasting moods and harmonies here will enthrall listeners and likely push the EP onto more than a few "Best Of" lists. This isn't the first "can't miss" release of 2012; so far, it's just the best.



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