In The Time Of Giants - Inheritance (2022)

Do giants experience time slower than humans, since they're bigger? I'd have never thought to think of that question if it wasn't for Benn Jordan's recent video about that subject (well, with animals, not giants, since, you know, giants don't exist) but after seeing that video, I couldn't help but think of it. Nothing to do with this album, but...

BANDCAMP

01. Crawk
02. Apatelepathy
03. Isosceles
04. Mr. Freeze
05. Inheritance
06. Rend
07. Somber
08. Dibbins
09. Slow Parable
10. Return
11. Spacewind
12. Reach For The Heavens
13. Digitalism
14. Wicked Game (Chris Isaak cover)

With a name like "In The Time of Giants", an artist could make two kinds of music and it wouldn't feel like a misnomer: epic doom metal or emo pop punk/metalcore. This is neither, but it is pretty epic and it does have some emo vibes pop up from time to time, and it has a lot of catchy and sparkly-sounding stuff, so... actually, somehow this feels like exactly the kind of music that you'd expect In The Time Of Giants to sound like.

This is a very solid album, in that it's consistent but has enough variation to keep it fresh and engaging. This stuff is dripping with nostalgia for bands that dominated MTV; I could easily visualise most of the songs on this album having music videos shot at parking lots with burning bins/cars/band members, dirty public toilets and other locations like that (although the fact that most songs are instrumental lessens the intensity of that visualisation).

The absolute standout track to me is Rend with its groovy heavy riffage and burning intensity, while Dibbins is a song that more or less cycles through every vibe present on this album.

The vocals make me think of a greasy alcoholic with messy hair and a scrawny goatee sitting on a porch in an off-white tank top with questionable stains who's seen it all, having flashbacks to whatever horrors he has witnessed. You might think that sounds like an insult, but I don't mean it like that; if anything, it really hammers home the feeling of this album as something reminiscent of harder times of the past. On the other hand, the electronic elements give it a modern touch, a hint of a future where we live in a technological utopia; it can't be a dystopia with all the hopeful melodies that permeate the album, can it? They do get melancholic, too, though...

Personally, I feel like a lot of the instrumental songs would be better and more memorable with vocals, because they tend to sound like they'd have space for vocals and to my ears that leaves them sounding somewhat incomplete. However, this is of course entirely subjective, and I'll admit I'm heavily biased in favour of music that has vocals, with only rare exceptions.

I'd say this album encapsulates a feeling of a late night where you're not sure what the future holds, feeling conflicted over fears and hopes. That vibe is wrapped up with the last song, a cover of a song I'd forgotten exists and never knew who it was originally by. This rendition of it, at least in the context of this album, somehow sounds to me like a last plea for confirmation that the future will be a utopia and not a cyberpunk dystopia.

Enjoyability: 7/10
Relistenability: 7/10
Memorability: 6/10
Coherence: 8/10
Flow: 9/10
Originality: 6/10
Epicness: 8/10
Nutshell: If prog metal/rock would be your favourite thing if only it didn't have so much proggery, this will be your favourite album.

Slow Crone - Enough (2022)

If you told me this was an obscure EP made by a psychedelic rock supergroup in the sixties or an industrial goth rock supergroup in the nineties, I don't think I'd even question it. If you told me it's the debut EP of a solo artist in the 2020's, I might be sceptical at first. But that's what it is.

BANDCAMP

01. Wide Enough

02. Wanted

03. Hey Man

04. What's It

It's hard to describe what this sounds like. I could make a whole bunch of comparisons to a wide range of artists, like "this is what might happen if you locked Patti Smith, Dax Riggs and the ghosts of Kurt Cobain and Lou Reed in a studio and told them they won't get out until they make a great record together", but it'd feel kinda cheap to say that. Besides, if you were to lock Patti Smith, Dax Riggs and the ghosts of Kurt Cobain and Lou Reed in a studio together, I don't imagine they'd accomplish much since two of the artists in the equation would only be there in spirit (ba dum tss?). Or maybe they'd come up with a masterpiece, but it's not really relevant to this EP. I just wanted to think of an interesting comparison, then say the comparison doesn't make sense, and that's what I thought of, OK?

Actually, maybe it's pretty easy to describe what this sounds like: psychedelic churnings from an endless ocean. It's timeless in that it doesn't sound exactly like anything else, but at the same time it sounds like a perfectly logical consummation of all the wild ass rock made since the sixties ([wild ass] rock, not wild [ass rock]; this isn't ass rock). Other artists may be doing similar things, but usually it comes across as a conscious effort to emulate a fusion of timeless classics; this, on the other hand, has a very organic feeling throughout.

The first track sounds like what the soundtrack to the film Moxie should've been like, if only that film hadn't pandered to mainstream zoomer sensibilities. It's a very groovy and oddly catchy song bursting with primal "fuck you" energy, a perfect opening to wake your ears up to what they're about to ingest.

The second and third tracks are more of the same, as in consistent quality but nothing you wouldn't expect. They stand on their own, but in the big picture they honestly kinda blend in and it's possible to just zone out while listening.

The last track, though, is where things get kicked up a notch. Everything gets out of control. It's like being woken up by having boiling water thrown at your face, and then having to take part in a fist fight to the death while your face is melting. Yet, as awful as that sounds, the song kicks ass... as if that wasn't obvious from that hypothetical event being described in the context of this type of music. But still, that song does reach levels of ear abuse that might border on uncomfortable... which is undeniably great, considering it's the last track and guarantees that this EP is unforgettable.

Enjoyability: 9/10
Relistenability: 8/10
Memorability: 7/10
Coherence: 8/10
Flow: 8/10
Originality: 6/10
Epicness: 6/10
Nutshell: Enough said! Get it? Because the EP is called Enough. Sorry, I had to...

Jared Spry - Quick Save (2022)

As hard as it is to believe, there are people in the world who don't like sax. The reason I mention their existence is that those people probably won't like Jared (or at least his music), because SAX GALORE.

BANDCAMP

01. Roll Initiative

02. Sand in My Left Shoe

03. Streets Ahead

04. Daydreams

05. Bridge Out

This entire EP has a nice nostalgic vibe. Listening to it, it's like being transported back into childhood, when life was all about playing comfy video games indoors (think Croc, Digimon World 2003 and Grandia) and walking outside in the summer when it was still possible to see butterflies, bees and whatnot all the time.

Roll Initiative is an interesting choice as the first track, because it's the most energetic. It's like you're pulled straight into a boss battle in one of those comfy games you used to play as a kid, and by the time you realise what's happening, you're already celebrating victory with a group of cute anthropomorphic animals; victory celebration is what Sand in My Left Shoe feels like to me, but at the same time it feels like journeying to an unknown destination, where everything is possible. That childlike wonder is blooming, and by the time you get to Streets Ahead, which is like an epic adventure through various fantastic landscapes populated by swarms of enemies (whatever those enemies may be), you're fully energised.

To me, Daydreams may be the best song on the EP. I mean, they're all good and full of epic saxophonising, but this song, with the long chill intro devoid of sax, feels like it takes you from passively floating through clouds on a bright blue sky to actively flying a sky ship of some kind when the sax comes in. It's like an entire adventure in itself, the theme song to a comfy game you would've wanted to play as a kid but couldn't because you were no longer a kid when it came out.

The last song, Bridge Out, is like being gradually transported back to the real world, to the current year, when everything is going to hell. It's a soft landing, like, "hey, you remember how things actually are? don't get carried away by imagination" and slowly but surely you're brought back to a life that isn't what it used to be.

If there's one criticism I could point out, it's that the sax gets a bit overpowering in the mix. I know saying that about music that's obviously intended to be very sax-driven may be a hot take, but there are moments when everything else is basically drowned out. There'd be more punch, especially in the last track, if the drums were louder. Of course, the effect of the music as a whole would be different if it was mixed differently, and it's possible the "childlike wonder" would be lost or at least diminished. I'm not really sure.

Not really a criticism, but as a whole it also isn't the most "striking" in any way. That may in part be because I don't listen to much music that has saxophone in it, but to me this EP feels like it's often "missing" something but I can't even imagine what that could be. Like, it's not variety, and it's not more instruments, and it's not vocals; I just don't know what it is. It also doesn't feel very original, even though at the same time it feels very unique; I can't really explain what I mean, but the point is that it's great as it is, but I have a feeling like it could be better. Maybe it's just that it's an EP and not an album. Dunno.

In any case, this is a solid EP that everyone who likes saxophone should give a chance.

Enjoyability: 9/10

Relistenability: 8/10

Memorability: 7/10

Coherence: 7/10

Flow: 8/10

Originality: 7/10

Epicness: 7/10

Nutshell: Let Jared Spry fry your ears with red-hot sax!

Yames - Watered Bodies (2017)

"Yames" sounds like how someone whose languages uses the letter J for the palatal approximant and doesn't know how English orthography works would pronounce the name "James". It also sounds like "Ames". As far as names go, it's a pretty cool one.

BANDCAMP

01. "Big Burning River"

02. "Hydra"

03. "Song of the Sine"

04. "Rivering Laze"

05. "Diluvian Turn"

06. "Titan Floes"

07. "Cry in the Rain" 

This album is interesting. In a way, it has the same somewhat uncanny vibe that Yames' games have... wait, you thought I wouldn't mention that Yames also makes games? I meant to not mention it, but I had to because it has the same kind of vibe and that comparison has to be made. (I haven't played any of his games myself, but I have watched videos on Youtube of other people playing them, and they seem pretty creepy and awesome.)

"Big Burning River" is a really good first track, in how it builds up from a simple bubbling ambient soundscape that could go in any direction to a sparkling bubbling mass with unicorns and rainbows galore. Yeah, that's the only thing I can think of when I hear this kind of synths playing this kind of melodies. Unicorns and rainbows. Halfway in, the unicorns begin to melt and the rainbows peel from the sky, revealing the malfunctioning machinery underneath. That's a pretty abstract thing to say, but this is a pretty abstract album, so...

"Hydra" sounds like sailing on a boat on a lake with high hills covered in tall palm trees on both sides, and mangroves extending far over the water. It's comforting, but you can't help but feel like something doesn't feel right. Like you've forgotten something you should be doing instead of wasting your time in that place. For some reason I often think of bodies of water when I think of what music sounds like, not just because the title of this album is Watered Bodies... anyway, you could say it's the most "mainstream" or "normal" of all the songs, and you wouldn't be wrong. That doesn't make it worse or better than the rest; the entire album is very solid and consistent with cool stuff sprinkled throughout.

The pushing and pulling rhythm of "Diluvian Turn" is very hypnotic, even more so than the rest of the album. Somehow it reminds me of a song I heard a long time ago but can't remember the first thing about, like it's tickling that part of my brain that's responsible for the creation of Mandela effects and for giving people a sense of familiarity with lost media they consciously know they can't have been familiar with.

The entire album sounds like it's alive, bubbling, wet, and has an air of mystery to it. It's like a lost album that one day washed ashore from the unknown depths of the ocean without an explanation, years after those who had once spent many sleepless nights trying to find it had given up on their search and concluded that its very existence was a false memory. As soon as they heard it, they knew it was the soundtrack of their childhood; yet, their parents had no memory of having ever heard of it and would swear that their children could never have heard it.

Enjoyability: 7/10

Relistenability: 7/10

Memorability: 9/10

Coherence: 7/10

Flow: 7/10

Originality: 8/10

Epicness: 5/10

Nutshell: Remember to water your bodies! I hope that means "stay hydrated". If it means something else... uh... just pretend I didn't say it?