Search - Giant Squid :: Metridium Fields

A Very Listenable Groove

Snow Leopard | Urbana, IL | 11/26/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Giant Squid are sometimes referred to as doom metal, and there are certainly spots where they sound like that, plus almost ever-present dreamy female vocals (which itself is not that uncommon in doom metal it seems). Since there are so many comparisons in other reviews to different bands that are currently out, the point of this review is to try to avoid comparisons (I think they often sound like the Russian funeral folk doom metal band Vo Skorbyah ... how unhelpful is that, and yes that's really their genre, and yes I recommend them), but rather to describe the shapes and textures and sounds of the songs themselves. As a result, there are frequent contrasts, between aggressive metalish moods, and dreamier, wavelike ones. Almost always, the mix is very close up over your frontal cortex, and layered far into the back, and even in the more aggressive portions have a swaying, oceanic feel and sound justifying the label of stoner metal as well.



It's trite to say that Giant Squid have their own unique sound, but I have to say Miss N. Thrope has it right by saying that the apparent influences seem passing, incidental. In other words, if you are buying this because someone says they're reminded of System of a Down, don't. Similarly, this is not 70s prog; it may have the variable instrumentation (including Theremin, banjo, and the remarkably versatile Juno-106) and some of the song length that 70s prog was famous (or notorious) for, but of Tull, Genesis, Yes, Kansas and even more obscure byways of 70s prog, there is nothing of the sort here. The craftsmanship and musicianship are nowhere as complex (and I don't mean that as a bad thing) to begin with, plus the doom metal elements have no 70s prog analog. Nor does there appear to be any connection to one of the reasons I grabbed this disc in the first place, being reminded by the band name of Gentle Giant's "Octopus" and "How to Clean Squid" by Thinking Plague. Nevertheless, the disc is proving to be one of the ones likely to stay in high rotation for me for a while.



But if that was a lot of what Giant Squid are not, here is what they are:



"Megaptera in the Delta," at 50" is an introductory noise-scape featuring, appropriately enough, whale song (genus Megaptera has recovered to be one of the least-endangered species of whale in the world), coupled with a low throb and slowly building fizzle to take you into ...



"Neonate," at 6'39", bangs in with some heavy, slow chords, perhaps one last slice of whale song, and then drops into a mid-tempo, driving guitar riff, glazed with a keyboard somewhere between a Cassio and a Hammond organ (probably the Juno-106). The grandeur of the opening gives way to drums, chimes, and acoustic guitar before satisfyingly returning to the main guitar riff, the wavelike rolling of it getting under your skin before returning to the minimalist orchestration again. Despite these sharp changes of mood, and even the occasional death-growl of the lead singer, the mood is remarkably oceanic, at least until around 3 minutes, where heavier guitars and sliding bass mashes around grandly for a bit. The whole group crashes on some heavy chords around 4 minutes, and the music goes off on an Eastern-tinged excursion. Only, of course, to return to the satisfying fuzz-riff of earlier, with high female vocals doubling the keyboard, and notes that sound like they're being played on a prepared piano hidden away in the mix; notes that come to the fore to end the song (sounding more now like simply an old, rather decrepit upright in someone's basement) mixed in with some edgy guitar sounds. Very nice.



"Versus the Siren," at 9'24", opens a very fizzy keyboard noise and spare drums, but gives way in short order to an intimate cavern sounding relaxed mood, including half-whispered, half-slurred lyrics--the whole thing with a hollow, echoey feel, suggesting a pleasant haze of smoke. What may prove to be a chorus gets a bit clearer, the bass and the keyboards stepping up as the guitar continue to hover over your frontal cortex. Then begins an especially pretty trumpet duet. It's this kind of combination of sounds, a variant of the early 70s peace-jam with Mark Isham-like trumpets that is a hallmark of the sound choices on this disc. All the bits, male and female vocals, chorus and trumpet, then all groove together, only to be suddenly busted apart by fuzzed out, straightforward guitar aggression, from behind which the vocals and trumpet alike can be felt trying to climb over or out of. A bit of a fuzzy jam session takes off around 5 minutes, culminating in dog-trot drums, repeated guitar chords, and a half-dazed keyboard and trumpet line rising and falling against that background. The song seems to climax around 6'46", then seeps back toward the opening mood. If part of the fun of Giant Squid is saying "this part sounds like this", then all of the bands cited by others seem inadequate for the quiet bit here from 7'30" on, which reminds me of the hollow, moody trumpet work found in early King Crimson somewhere. (There's even an often-repeated bit of descending guitar in this song that also seems like a pre-Larks' Tongues in Aspic quotation.) Another nice mind-trip of a song.



"Ampullae of Lorenzini," at 9'16", follows immediately upon the end of Versus the Siren in a sweet segue, introducing whispered vocals, and a bass/guitar/Mellotron lead that very shortly will blow up into a giant, aggressive and quite gorgeous thing. Add to this then alternately howling vocals, and then almost death-metal growling, and this piece is fast on its way to becoming the stand-out on the disc. This breaks off for more dreamy female-sung vocals and a banjo that manages to sound almost halfway to a sitar at places. The main riff then returns again with male and female vocals piled on it in dreamy death-metal, followed by a rock orchestral transition to 5'15" where a final, and grand, slow-moving guitar line with wildly dueted male/female vocals (and a gorgeous bass glissando) slowly marches for no less than 3 minutes grandly to the end. (Ampullae of Lorenzini, by the way, are the electromagnetic and temperature sensors known most famously on sharks.)



"Summit," at 6'39", starts off with a sampled weather report for the Sierra-Nevada mountains, undercut by a slightly eerie bass line and icy, haunting female vocals. The now expected male and female husky/dreamy vocals then stand right on your frontal cortex, slowly starting to spiral out ... to a false climax. This builds ... more howling vocals, and cutting back to softness again before blistering apart with a fine, huge mostly melodious wall of sound that morphs around in various musical configurations to the end.



"Eating Machine," at 55", features squirrelly keyboards, treated vocals declaring the miracle of evolution that is the eating machine, and more whale song. Again, this is simply an introduction to ...



"Revolution in the Water," at 6'52", kicks off with a drum fill and driving guitars and a buried chorus of vocals, slowly sliding off into a spare, delay-guitared mood piece. The piece the oscillates between slowly sawing down guitar lines with howled vocals and restatements of the mellower bits, morphing the orchestration, then repeating until finally around 3'01" it gives way to a bit of a death-chug that veers East for a moment before opening up into the best section for classifying Giant Squid as doom metal. Rather abruptly, the revolution in the water seems to peter out, providing a segue into ...



"Metridium Field," at 21'09", is the stoner-metal epic and seemingly everyone's favorite target of the complaint "it's too long". (Metridium are a form of anemone, and a field of them is just what it sounds like.) The initial mood is echoey, spare, and performed in a metal pipe; this piece knows it's long, and is willing to be patient, but the crisp, slightly up-tempo drums keep the opening from dragging. Gradually, airy keyboards and plucked guitars build up until at 4'46" you get a first taste of the truly grand and massive guitar riff that will power this song from here on out. Once established, the picked guitars and more start hover over the music, followed abruptly (and effectively) by a whole chorus of somewhat dissonantly harmonized male/female vocals right in the middle of the mix. Male and female then separate, the death metal male vanishing into maelstrom, only later to get his chance alone, screaming incoherently. At 8'50", he vanishes, and it's just the riff now, huge, stately, wonderful. Perhaps somewhere in the mix there are variations, but if so I can't hear them. This is the "too long" portion but, if you dig the riff, it's very hard to mind listening to it as if it would never end; and part of the effectiveness of the solo that will eventually appear is to be so mesmerized that it seems impossible the music might ever change again. I'm not sure the song would be as effective if it didn't have such a huge section of almost pure repetition (there are slight variations in the drums at least). Once the guitar lets go of the riff, it is one long pleasantly noise slide toward more sludge, loss of definition, and a massive increase in fuzziness. A very grand piece, fittingly epic.



Certainly often a curious blend of sounds (that are clearly normal for Giant Squid), this disc features lots of contrasts that heap together effectively in a very sonic, almost mesmerizing way. I'll be interested to hear what they do next.

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