IAH “IAH” Album Review + Stream…

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IAH

IAH – CD // DD

Necio Records – released July 21, 2017

Reviewed by Eric Layhe

 

Line Up:
Juan Pablo Lucco Borlera: Bajo
Mauricio Condon: Guitarra
José Landín: Batería

Hometown: 
Córdoba, Argentina

Tracklist:
Cabalgan Los Cielos                  (7:39)
Ouroboros                                    (5:16)
Stolas                                            (8:42)
Eclipsum                                      (4:36)
La Piedra Que Sujeta El Sol    (5:45)
Nuboj                                            (7:26)

 

                         IAH – Self Titled EP Demo

Post-Metal, especially Instrumental Post-Metal, is somewhat akin to walking a tightrope: if executed correctly, it can be a true wonder to behold. However, even the slightest misstep can spell disaster for the artist in question. One of the latest acts to walk this tightrope is Argentina’s IAH.

Post-Metal’s largest pitfall is that it can be a very difficult genre to perform while maintaining the interest of the listener. All too commonly, the music is tuned out, eventually being delegated to being “background music” after the listener sets their attention to something more gripping. Fortunately, IAH does an excellent job of making sure their music remains interesting in their debut album, adeptly shifting the feel of their music at the exact instant that the musical idea of the time would wear its welcome.

This album often feels like 3 friends jamming in their garage, and that is absolutely a good thing. An air of familiarity and camaraderie permeates this release- it lacks the disconnect between the listener and the artist that so many larger releases have. It really feels like IAH are sharing something with you and that you are simply hanging out with them, and this feeling definitely pans out in their favor.

Live Band Pic

The sections of this album that yield the biggest and best impact are when the band really lets loose: IAH feels, far and away, most comfortable when their amps are turned up to eleven, the overdrive is blaring, the guitar is detuned, and the drummer is holding nothing back. Approximately halfway through album opener “Cabalgan Los Cielos” the fuzz guitar is taken beyond the point of no return and the song opens up into an outright tremendous stomp that characterizes the band at their best: Loud, heavy, and downright punishing. This sensation is taken to its maximum in the first half of album high point “Eclipsum”, a showcase of world class riffs full of fuzz, wah, and bass chords.

Spacey, Post-metal is at its finest when the band lets loose, just as outer space is at its most interesting when one takes a look at the crushing gravitational forces of stars, supernovas, and black holes, and IAH is a band that certainly seems to be perfectly aware of this. Despite being rather new to the scene, IAH weaves a work that deserves plenty of attention in the metal crowd, and if there is any justice in this great big universe, these masters of musical intuition will receive that attention.

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Our Ceasing Voice “Free Like Tonight” Album Review + Stream + Music Video…

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Our Ceasing Voice

Free Like Tonight – Limited Vinyl // CD // DD

Self Released: August 25, 2017

Reviewed by Andy “Dinger” Beresky

 

Austrian Ambient / Alt. Rockers Our Ceasing Voice have been at it awhile, though this is my first encounter with them.  Folks are always surprised when I haven’t heard of this band or that band, especially if it’s something that is well within the realm of what I usually find myself listening to.  The fact of the matter is just that there’s a whole slew of music out there, and there’s simply no way for me to keep up with it all.  Nearly everyone these days is in a band, or two, or three, or five.  With that kind of saturation, it’s easy for even really good bands to slip through the cracks.  That’s the case with Our Ceasing Voice, and I’m honestly surprised that these cats don’t have a bit more exposure.  Their sound is both unique and accessible, though perhaps the vocals are a bit of an acquired taste.  Also, Free Like Tonight was only released about a month ago, so this album hasn’t really had enough time to get out there and reach a wider audience. In truth, I’m not sure how their back catalog compares to their latest, so this album is my only point of reference.

When talking about this album, I think that it’s important to write about the vocals first and foremost, as they’re the center point; they’re what stands out and drives the music.  It’s the kind of style that’s going to be polarizing: a deep and tortured baritone, goth-inspired and pain-strickenly emotional.  For me personally, they work and totally make the album, and I can see how others may be turned off by them, especially as they veer towards the melodramatic more often than not.  Still, vocalist Dominik Dorfler delivers his poetic lyrics with both poise and power.

The songs themselves are fairly simple in structure and instrumentation.  They’re focused on texture and atmosphere rather than any form of musical pyrotechnics – layers of reverberated piano, subtle guitar parts echoed for emphasis, and airy washes of synthesizers float in and out of the mix, laying a backdrop for the vocals, and minimalist drums form the bedrock and foundation underneath.  It’s tough for me to tell if there’s an actual bass guitar playing, or if the low end is simply carried by the guitars and synths; if there is bass, once again, it’s subtle.  There’s no bassist credited on the album, so there very well may not be one.

Now, as much as I like this album, it’s not without faults, like most albums.  While I can appreciate the shifts in dynamics that break up monotony within the songs themselves, on a whole, there’s not a lot of diversity within the album.  Every song is extremely similar, and the tempos are all in the same ballpark.  There’s not a whole lot to differentiate them, and perhaps that’s why these guys have kept a relatively low profile.  This isn’t a deal breaker for me, and it shows a clear area for growth.  Moving forward, if they incorporated something different every third song or so, or even used some interludes to break things up a bit, I think that they could have a lot of success with future albums.  Their basic formula is solid – they just need a little bit of tweaking so that their albums really stand out and don’t start to feel tedious or repetitious halfway through.

Band Pic

I can see fans of ambient music, post-rock and goth rock getting into Our Ceasing Voice.  The vocals make their music fairly unique without being wildly experimental, and what they do, they do extremely well.  As I’ve noted above, I’m more concerned with what they don’t do.  Namely, they do need to fix things up a bit.  It’s tough for me to even identify a standout track because….well, they’re all pretty good, and they’re all pretty similar.

A band like this has all kinds of options – add some more experimental elements  and really abstract sounds, rev up the tempos for a tune or two, add some vocal harmonies, get some guest musicians.  Hell, even add some more traditional rock elements like a fitting guitar solo, adding more hooks in the vocals and instrumentation, or just some bridges.  Getting a bassist may help with this by beefing up the rhythms and offering opportunities for interplay between the bass and drums.  Like I’ve stated over and over – Our Ceasing Voice have developed a unique sound, and they’ve got a ton of potential.  If they can carry that approach over to the treatment of individual songs, so that each song on an album stands as its own individual statement, then I think they’ll really start to go places.

Our Ceasing Voice at The Great Wall of China during their last Tour!Our Ceasing Voice at The Great Wall in China!!

IAH – “Self Titled” Album Review + Stream…

Written by

IAH

IAH – released January 20, 2017

Necio Records – CD // Kozmik Artifactz – Vinyl // DD

Album Reviewed by Ric “Suisyko” Dorr

 

 

Location – Córdoba, Argentina

Band Members –  Bass: Juan Pablo Lucco Borlera (Orighen) // Drums: José Landin (S.A.D.E. – Fahrenheit – It Will Be the End) //

Guitar: Mauricio Condon (Pieles)

This first offering from IAH, a three piece outfit brought together, each with a pedigree of previous bands, and they have created something that shines bright from first note to last. Four tracks of instrumental bliss that the band has tagged as a combination of ambient/post-rock/stoner/metal siphoned through an experimental filter. An intriguing descriptor for sure and these are 25 minutes of some of the most coherent meanderings yet to throw those tags together.

Opening track ‘Cabalgan Los Cielos’ (Ride The Skies) has an almost-hidden fade in the beginning three seconds before the band enters with a nice even paced walk of resonating clear notes carried by a lumbering-thick bass line and a cadence from the drum-kit that fits perfectly. By the time the first power chord rings out at 1:40, you are already hooked for the ride and the smile that creeps across your face is one of sonic satiation. The spaced out flow for the duration is seamless from clear notes to distorted screams and back again as you can feel the twists and turns through the atmospheric coursing painted.

Live Band Pic

The last section shows that they can get as fast and hammering as the next, and are not afraid to do it to the fullest extent possible and then shifting back to that doom-heavy slowness and over-modulated purity of power, a slow-fading digital echo taking us into ‘Ouroboros’ with an almost spaghetti-western tone and progression.  Taps of cymbal ringing softly until another hit of snare and we’re off for the next round of instrumental hypnosis that has as many twists and turns and fills that feed off of each time shift effortlessly punctuating that this band as a unit are exactly  the same page and give the same 200% lacking with too many.

‘Stolas’ (Clothing) has a nice jazz-tempo beginning, those clear notes with a slight reverb edge tickle your ears as the time signature makes your fingers tap along involuntarily as the sing-song/stop and go tempo becomes your pulse as you move right along with every note, each speaking every word, never said but still heard. Each member is as solid as stone and flex and flow perfectly, never dropping a second and still maintaining that ‘live-in-the-studio’ feel that lets IAH deliver the goods. Closer ‘Eclipsum’ hits hard and heavy, thick and heavy from the first second and shows even MORE of the syncopational unity these three represent.

This EP had been released in January 2017 and there are two extra tracks available via the band’s bandcamp page. ‘La piedra que sujeta el sol’ (The Stone That Holds The Sun) that listens as the perfect “next song” after the end of ‘Eclipsum’ and is even MORE raw and ‘live’ sounding giving a majesty to their soundscape and when ‘Nuboj’ begins with those harmonic muted tones ringing out followed by the clarity of that sound of brand-new strings permeates the air, you can almost smell the difference and the next seven plus minutes wrap the entire take together with the ultimate mix of heavy and harmonic. Get ALL six of these songs in your library the very second you find them and share out to each person you come in contact with as they NEED to hear this as badly as you do even now and support them live if you get the chance… keep it LOUD!!