What would the WhiteWalkers listen to, when runnning amok in the woods and cutting the few heads that dare to appear between the snowflakes and the freezing dusks?
What kind of music would Bavmorda ask for when coming back home after changing an entire army of good-willing knights into sweating pigs?
How would sound the silence in a scandinavian forgotten factory where soulless proletarian ghouls and ancient mechanical ghosts endlessly scream at the walls to deny the cold oblivion whistling outside?
The answers are in this EP.
Layer after layer, This Gift is a Curse build desolate landscapes at the crossroad where sick kraut rock and unfriendly stoner meet. The raw material is classical: guitar, bass, drums, grunting and, here and there, the synthetic sounds of ethereal monsters passing by. The result is really heavy, with a kind of martial groove that could tell a lot of horrible stories about the things hiding in the dark parts of some woods or skulls, creatures Lovecraft is usually the only one to see.
Not exactly the kind of music you like to hear on a sunny afternoon, but if you tend to appreciate oppressive sludge from now and then, this EP is for you.
To get a clear idea of how the band can create a masterpiece solely based on how the violence can be contain to optimize its devastating power, listening to "Althea", it is the best song and example: a long song, based on simple but wisely structured elements, that grows and grows until it breaks into pieces.
Do yourself a favour, and have a try:
I had the oportunity to see them live (in the mighty mighty Casa Viva), and the concert was impressive. Everything was dark, no lights but two red sparkling eyes. The whole room was filled with a pale smoke where some silhouettes, sometimes, where moving. The only musician I managed to see was the singer, a tall blond guy litterally bending over the audience to tell them things nobody dared to understand.
A sonic experience fringing the performance, quite intense and, as far the band was concerned, a cathartic one. If you have the chance to see them on stage, give a try, they deserve it.
the bandcamp (only their album "I, guilt bearer" is available")
the myspace (where you can listen to some songs of the EP)
the buying (which is far from easy, but you can give it a try)
the facibooki
the big cartel
the tumblblblr
the objectivity:
- a short one at Slow end
- a real presentation of the band at Discouraged Records
- almost the same information through anoother canal: sputnik music
- an interview I haven't read yet at Idioteq
- shrt review in french at Satan Owes us Money
