An interesting, if flawed, debut
Artiste: Caves of Glass
Nationality: American
Album: Caves of Glass
Year: 2013
Label: Self-released I think
Genre: Ambient/Progressive/New Age/Metal/Insert here....
Tracks:
The hollow
Gone from Oceania
Mariana
Barren earth
The end
Chronological position: Debut album
Familiarity: Zero
Interesting factoid:
Initial impression: Relaxing and ambient, then it kicks in!
Best track(s): Gone from Oceania, Mariana
Worst track(s): Nothing
Comments: Apparently this is a collaboration between a lot of people I personally have never heard of, but you may --- Larry Hansen, Jim Tobakos, Dan Leader, Zach Galkin? Ring any bells? --- and seems to meld ambient, progressive and possibly death metal in a rather uneasy alliance. When I heard the sample tracks I must admit I didn't hear the scratchy, screeched vocal, but here it's kind of subsumed into the music, almost as an extra instrument (as someone, I think Janszoon, once told me) or as a sound effect. So it's not the sort of vocal that ruins the music. And the music is pretty good I must say. The opener is nine minutes long and doesn't feature too much in the way of "singing", some very nice acoustic guitar and haunting keyboard.
There are in fact, as you can see above, only five tracks on the album, but one is almost thirteen minutes long. It's impressive stuff. You know, I kind of don't hate the vocal style, now that I listen to it. It's almost like someone with a sore throat trying to sing, and it's not anywhere near as aggressive or overbearing as some death metal I've heard. In
Gone from Oceania for example it fits very well with the laidback piano and guitar, and then a proper vocal comes in, which is very surprising but welcome.
Mariana is very slow, ambient and atmospheric, kicking up with some powerful effective guitar closer to the end. Another standout.
You know, ever since that "real" vocal came in at the end of
Gone from Oceania I haven't heard the screechy one, and the next track seems to be instrumental, so far. Though I shouldn't jump to conclusions, as this is the thirteen-minute one. Still, we're five minutes in and only music up to this point. Okay, well with a nice piano passage halfway through and then finishing on heavy electric guitar this is indeed a thirteen-minute instrumental. Which leaves only one track, appropriately titled
The end, with soft acoustic guitar and synthy effects, some lovely piano and wind sounds. Some nice backwards masking tape effects too, really completes the album, finishes well.
Overall impression: Different to what I had expected. Kind of reminds me of The Deadstation in ways. Something here for fans of many different musical styles and genres.
Intention: Look out for their next release.