The Doom/Sludge/Stoner thread

I love the Kyuss version, it sticks real close to the original until that SUPREMELY funky middle section. Great solo by Josh as well.

Ok, hold the presses. I'm erect, like I was when I first discovered Giant Squid and Baroness. I just heard Grayceon - This Grand Show, and I'll be a monkey's grandpappy if, firstly, this band doesn't sound exactly like the spitting image of Giant Squid. Everything about the production, with the cellos and the female backing vocals and everything. Now that I think back, I once saw that there was a Giant Squid/Grayceon split release when the Squid was first getting its start. But, they don't sound like seperate entities. They sound like extensions of each other. There has to be the same members in both outfits. These two have to be the same band with different names.

I'll tell ya what seems to be going on here. Now that I've heard this Grayceon - This Grand Show more than once, it sounds like all the serious instrumental passages made it onto this Grayceon title, and more of the melodious, conceptual stuff went into Giant Squid - Metridium Fields recording. All I know is that this Grayceon recording is one of the smartest things I've ever heard. Then again, I was saying the same thing about Metridium too. You guys NEED TO hear this outing. This is required listening.

I did a tad of research and see now that the common element is Jackie Perez Gratz - ELECTRIC CELLO/VOICE. Now everything makes sense. YOU still need to hear both projects if you haven't yet. Don't be a big penga. Check into it.

Also, I noticed that Aaron Gregory, Giant Squid's frontman, as well as the drummer work at the Bay Aquarium in San Fransisco. Gregory is a professional scuba diver and I guess this makes sense as their music is thematically all about the sea.

Yeah, they seem to be all kinds of sea obsessed. There's others too, like The Ocean, another awesome doom-laden, Post-Rock outfit with a fascination with what goes on well under sea level. But, I can't believe how similiar both Squid and Grayceon sound. They're really just two faces of the same aqueous sea-dwelling mammal. What gives a distinctive slant to both outfits is what this Jackie Perez Gratz brings to the table. I'll have to see how their story plays out in a live setting. Gotta check and see if they're coming to NYC.

I'm giving some attention to some samples for these releases that Metal Storm is calling the Best Doom Albums of the past few years, like efforts by Isole, Memory Garden and Forest of Shadows. They're even splitting the genre into a sub-genre they're calling Extreme Doom. Checking out a band called Esoteric, and it's just not doing squat for me. The Extreme stuff encompasses stuff like Ambient Drone. I gave Moss - Sub Templum a shot, but that kinda stuff can hardly be called music. Give me the traditional stuff, like Candlemass, Trouble and Solitude Aeturnus.

http://www.metalstorm.ee/awards/categories.php?cat_id=6

http://www.metalstorm.ee/awards/categories.php?cat_id=7

This Grand Show is an awesome album, it's easily one of my favorites of 2008. If you haven't heard Giant Squid's new album "The Ichthyologist" I suggest you pick it up once they sign on a label and give it a true release, unless they haven't sold out of the self release stock yet. It's less heavy than "Metridium Fields" but it has a much more matured and full sound and I'd say that I prefer it to MF, but only by a hair. It's also the first album to include several members from Grayceon and you can definitely hear the influence in the more upbeat as well as the somber feel to some of the songs. It's also cool to note that it's a concept album about a man lost at sea battling with his own mind, although I haven't truly delved into the story yet as I'm still familiarising myself with the music. This is a band with monumentous amounts of potential to become a 'classic' in my eyes.

Trial, man, you know precisely what's up, friend. I can't believe I completely overlooked Grayceon, while I've been down with The Squid for a couple years now. I really didn't know what to make of This Grand Show the first time I heard it. My brain was having a real hard time coming to terms with the fact that it all sounded too similiar to Squid. It was frizzle-fryin' my brain.

I listened to it in the background whilst surfing the net and the likeness to Squid was picked up on and acknowledged, I guess it was, but I didn't know what to make of it all at first. Second spin and the similarity was overt and in me face. It began to sound awesome, but the similarity was strange indeeed. Never came across such a thing like that before. Why is there two bands who sound so much alike, and I frakkin love one of 'em? Then it clicked that there must be some members in common here. And, there indeed was. Now I'm waving the flags for both of these mother flarkin' groups and dyin' to see this whole cello and sea-farin' expedition in a live setting.

Gotta see this live. But, there ain't nothing coming up the pipeline for either of 'em. Want to spread the word and get everybody into these guys in the interim. Or, maybe, be selfish and keep it all to myself. Both bands are just too good for the brainless hordes anyway. Would be wasted on the majority of morons out there. Squid and Grayceon might be some time away from makin' it to the right coast, but I just learned that Intronaut, Mastodon and Kylesa is coming right around the corner to Irving Plaza on May 9th! That will be a wickedly awesome time guaranteed for all who love the The Heavy. A Doom-laden Sludge-fest of a Post-Rock party for the those of us 'in the know'.

May 9 2009 8:00P

Fillmore @ Irving Plaza (w/ Mastodon and Kylesa)

New York, New York

I'm being seduced by the magic of Blood Ceremony at the moment. This is the soundtrack for those sunday afternoon satan services, as advertised in Fangoria magazine.

Wow, I was pretty lit up when I wrote what I just wrote over. And, I was listening to Psalm 9, instead of The Skull. And, I still think that Trouble should just hang up their guns if they can't get what's his face to sing on their next release. Sometimes it's better to just put down the narcotics and walk away.

Marc Mason wrote:

Sometimes it's better to just put down the narcotics and walk away.

Yeah, but if you did that then this board would become less amusing, and you know that my amusement trumps your personal health and sanity.

Ahaha. lol. Check this out, son. I've become all kinds of Jackie Perez Gratz obsessed afta I found out that she's a tres imputato kinda gal. Nah, I know nothing about her imput status. What I do now know is that she is a Tres Acomodo (employment) kinda dame. She is in yet another of these down-tuned, down-tempo, all around downer bands. That's three seperate gigs, mate.

ASUNDER from So. Cal. http://www.myspace.com/totheendofdays

Those in the community must love her combined talent of voice and strings.

Here she is with Giant Squid: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TrxvcvfUHbU/SRW9L1HNOkI/AAAAAAAAAtA/XGy_GYHIqTA/s1600-h/giant_4870411.jpg

Ah, that assumption was wrong as well. She is yet another band. Amber Asylum. Her voice is very prominent on the featured, 'Garden Of Love' track on the MySpace site. I think it would be safe to say that the magic number is 'four' here. She is an amazingly talented woman and an obvious asset to any band she inhabits. Which, I think is four now.

Problem is that her style is so dang distinctive, that it steers a band, any band which she's in, towards a specific direction, a specific style. Here are links to all four of the outfits she's a part of. Please check this stuff out. Especially the Squid and Grayceon material. I love this specific sub-genre which she's a significant part of.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=11132254
Giant Squid
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=62298564
Grayceon
http://www.myspace.com/totheendofdays
Asunder
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=2594423
Amber Asylum

Got The Ocean's Precambrian on at the moment. Slammin'. Tryin' to think of how these guys might benefit from the services of one, Jackie Perez Gratz....Told ya I'm obsessed. Nah, she'd probably get gang raped if she found herself in this collective. There's something like nine guys in this sea-obsessed outfit. Probably all computer nurds with a lot of pent up, backed up fluids. Not a great environment for a tender celloist.

Can't you feel the love coming outta that picture?

I think the only guys in that picture who are smiling are probably the ones in the fencing masks. They probably made them put 'em on so as not to ruin their image.

If all these characters are in this one band, The Ocean Collective, then there's 12 of 'em. Seein' how silly a large amount of dudes look, when collected all together like this, maybe we can empathize with Slipknot's decision to put on the masks. Right? This looks like a gaggle of D & D dorkheads taking a group photo before they sleep out the night for advance tickets to the next Hobbit flick....But, that 'Precambrian' album is just so awesome, so they're forgiven.

THREE DUDES look downright dangerous here though....The dude, four dudes in from the left. The cat right after the second fencing dude....This guy's story is that failed outta the Army's boot camp in the third week. He was reprimanded several times for collecting dead things and placing them in his foot locker. He came back home to Kentucky and moved into his parents' basement. They were the 'hands-off' 'look the other way' type parents, and didn't care to get involved when they heard all that banging and screaming coming from the basement in the middle of the night. Turns out that this cretin was murdering freshmen from the local college and, yes, eating their lower halves. The torse and upper extremities were found jammed in his basement foot looker. Hey, I just call 'em as I see 'em.

The other two dangerous blokes are, firstly, the dude, six dudes in from the left. The guy with the goatee and the shifty eyebrows. This guy story is that he's a serial 7-11 robber. Doesn't steal money though. Goes right for the microwave burritos and chimichangas every time. The other danger boy is the character, three characters in from the right. The black troll. This guy is just your average, garden-variety style kiddy-piddler. He's piddled kids in 28 states of the union. He mostly likes kids that look like Webster. Hey, don't get mad at me. I'm just reading their faces.

Marc Mason wrote:

firstly, the dude, six dudes in from the left. The guy with the goatee and the shifty eyebrows. This guy story is that he's a serial 7-11 robber. Doesn't steal money though. Goes right for the microwave burritos and chimichangas every time

I believe you're correct about the 7-11 thing and if I'm not mistaken that's his trained deadly poisonous attack caterpillar that he uses in those robberies on the left side of his face.

See how it's raising up and about to strike.

The guy in the very middle thinks he's carrying watermelons. This is the type of clown who kisses his biceps every time he looks in the mirror. Somewhere amongst his tattoos is a portrait of a child he had when he was 12. He got the tattoo at the age of 13.

Marc Mason wrote:

Somewhere amongst his tattoos is a portrait of a child he had when he was 12. He got the tattoo at the age of 13.

I believe I've found a news story about this guy that was produced when he was 13.
Turns out he's British as well. Who knew?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alWJQ709Jdg&feature=related

That kid looks like he's 9, not 13. The expression on his face looks like he has absolutely no idea how the baby came into being. You can see that he's trying to piece it all together as he holds the kid. "I put my wee-wee in her vee-jay and now we have this little burping being who looks sorta like me, sorta like her. I wonder what will come out of her if I put my finger in her ear."

What an obscenely ridiculous world we live in, where babies are making babies, and twelve dorkheads can get together and form their own Post-Doom band, named The Ocean....Ok, now locate the character four guys in from the righthand side, the guy with the blue glasses and the little Vegas Valet moustachio. That guy right there was a Corrections Officer in a Las Vegas jail for many years until he got fired for dancing topless for the inmates. He denied all wrongdoing, but the nipple-tassles he was wearing that day gave him away. Thankfully, The Ocean doesn't check references.

Got the ol' Candlemass on at the moment. Band is just so good. I have yet to hear a traditional Doom outfit that can compete, friends. I think that folks need to be shown how bad the majority of bands in each of the genres really are, before they're able to see how good the really good ones really are. That's what we call the theory of metalic relativity by comparison.

I almost threw this on one of the other non-metal threads, but these guys have too much stoner/sludge going on as well as just being supremely heavy not to.

I'm talkin' about the band Torche . I guess if I had to give 'em a label I might call it sludge-pop, which is either a new sub-genre or a really gross sounding frozen treat.

I find most of their stuff heavier than much of what I hear today but done in somewhat of a pop style by which I mean having some really catchy riffs combined with a mostly upbeat feel all delivered in a more pop vocal styling in an average 3 minute or less time-span.
Some of their songs are a bit on the lighter side from time to time and may not be everyone on this boards cup o' tea but most people I've recommended 'em to have purchased an album or two of theirs.

Check out their MySpace page as it has songs on it that go from a much lighter feel to ones that can't really be mistaken for anything but metal.

http://www.myspace.com/torche

I haven't given these guys a fair shake yet. I listened to a few tracks from them and a band named, Isis, but then moved quickly onto the Baroness and Squid and The Ocean stuff. I have a tune from Meanderthal on right now. The guitar tone is very much like what can be found on the Giant Squid records. Well, most Post-Rock records. Nice fat, fuzzy tone. But, there is more harmonized vocals here than the other bands from the genre. Yeah, the stuff has got more of a Pop angle to it. But, not tremendously, not offensively. I might dig these guys eventually. Sounds pretty good. How about Isis? They pretty much the same deal? A more mainstream version of Post-Rock?

How about 'Battle Metal' and 'Mythical Occult Metal'? Two more divisive tags I came across tonight.

How come nobody mentioned that The Ocean have themselves a more up-to-date title than 'Precambrian'? I did not know this. Their newest title is called, Pantheon of the Lesser. Ya hear it?

I'm listening to Gojira right now. Made me think...What and how the heck do ya categorize these punks? They got a real original thang going on for themselves, amongst thousands of these copy-cat conformist bands. Gojira should be applauded, no matter what sub-genre ya want to file them under. They hot, son. They got a Death vibe. They got something of a Nu-Metal and Groove vibe, without being Pop in a way. Little dashes of Doom, here and there. The vocalist reminds me of Jonathan Davis in places. They just hot, son. Totally original vibe. Their album, 'From Mars To Sirius' is got to be they best, holmes.

Marc Mason wrote:

I haven't given these guys a fair shake yet. I listened to a few tracks from them and a band named, Isis, but then moved quickly onto the Baroness and Squid and The Ocean stuff. I have a tune from Meanderthal on right now. The guitar tone is very much like what can be found on the Giant Squid records. Well, most Post-Rock records. Nice fat, fuzzy tone. But, there is more harmonized vocals here than the other bands from the genre. Yeah, the stuff has got more of a Pop angle to it. But, not tremendously, not offensively. I might dig these guys eventually. Sounds pretty good. How about Isis? They pretty much the same deal? A more mainstream version of Post-Rock?

Torche are interesting in that they are one of those bands that seem to appeal to the heavy rock/metal crowd as well as the portion of the indie rock crowd that wants to listen to something heavier every once in a while.

Isis, I definitely like and I've got a couple of their albums; Panopticon and In the Absence of Truth. I wouldn't call 'em mainstream as their stuff can get pretty drawn out. I think they started out as more of a step-child in sound of the band Neurosis who I guess many would consider as the Grandfather of this whole post-metal genre. Nowadays I think just as many of these types of bands are influenced by Isis as they are Neurosis.

If you get to like Isis and their contemporaries more there are a few others I would recommend in this genre. Some are lighter in sound or are completely instrumental while others mix in vocals pretty sparingly:
Pelican
Red Sparrows
Russian Circles
Mouth of the Architect
Explosions in the Sky
This Will Destroy You