Bandcamp Picks - Earth, Yawning Man, Pelican, Odyssey, Pinkish Black

After a few years touring and recording on his own, Dylan Carlson has reunited with Adrienne Davies for Earth's ninth album. Full Upon Her Burning Lips captures Carlson's guitar in its full twanging glory, with a growing flair that separates the band's modern era from the austere doom/drone of its early albums. Meanwhile, Davies' minimalist beats give the riffs the somber foundation they need. The last Earth album surprised fans with the addition of vocals; this time around, the duo sticks to being strictly an instrumental band, but the beauty of Earth always was their ability to tell stories without words. [$9.99]



Before there was "desert rock" there was Yawning Man. Macedonian Lines shows that the veteran band's knack for crafting spacey instrumentals is as sharp as ever, with crystalline guitars snaking over distorted bass lines, splitting the difference between space rock, desert rock, and post-rock. Feet in the valley with eyes to the sky. [€8.50]



Pelican have been carrying the flag for indie metal longer than most. Written in tribute to Jody Minnoch of Tusk (the grindcore band that included members of Pelican), Nighttime Stories brings the band back to the heaviness of their first albums, embedding speedy drums and crushing riffs amidst the melody and atmosphere that made the band so beloved by Pitchfork and the like. They may not seem as revolutionary as they did in the previous decade, but few instrumental bands have managed to be as heavy and emotive simultaneously as Pelican. [$7.99]



It's been a while since I checked in on Spokane's Odyssey - they were one of my OG Bandcamp Picks, and I'm happy to say they're still active. The Swarm, the trio's fourth full-length studio album, is ultra-heavy, hammering that double-bass drumming through thrashing riff-fests and syncopated chugging. Putting the pedal to the instrumental. [$7]



We're in the midst of a synth rock renaissance thanks to Stranger Things, and few of those bands are as heavy as Texans Pinkish Black.  Concept Unification (an album inspired by ...wait for it ...the animatronic band at Chuck E. Cheese) takes its cues from Seventies horror soundtracks - particularly the work of Goblin and John Carpenter - using eerie keyboards as the framework for the band's doomy aesthetic, as well as a backdrop for Darren Beck's doleful monotone. Neon-tinted gloom. [$10]

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Bandcamp Picks - Odyssey, Divine Realm, Oranssi Pazuzu, Aloft

Spokane instrumental trio Odyssey return with possibly their best album yet. As per the band's name, each song on Voids feels like a journey and an epic tale of its own - not unlike recent Cynic [sans the lovesick robot vocals]. But when they pick up the pace (as on the Voivod-esque "Before There Were Eyes"), it's apparent their hesher roots run deep. [$7]



Divine Realm aren't beyond showing off a little. Halfway between Steve Vai and Fredrick Thorendal, Tectum Argent is stubbornly idiosyncratic and wonderfully unpredictable. It's all a bit too "djenty" for this aging curmudgeon of a hesher, but the album is still laudable for its ambition. [$7 CAD]



Oranssi Pazuzu remain as committed to darkness as ever in their own psychedelic way. Doom, black metal, kraut rock and psychedelia are thown into the cement mixer they call Värähtelijä, and the results are as compelling as they are frightening. [€6.50]


Atmosphere is key for Texans Aloft. Their cosmic-minded debut Dark Energy combines classic prog and psych rock with some trippy electronica and even the occasional twangy rockabilly moment. This is begging for a laser show at a local science center; or at the very least, a black light poster. [$7]

Bandcamp Picks: The Odious, Odyssey, Cortexiphan, Xanthochroid

The Odious, from Portland OR, take progressive and technical death metal down the jazz-inflected path that Cynic and Atheist hinted it would go in the mid-90's. Joint Ventures is a remarkable and accomplished album, filled with left turns and interesting digressions, in addition to stellar musicianship. I can't say I'm into the Layne Staley-ish clean vocals that start the album and appear periodically throughout, but everything else is ridiculously on point. This 11 track album (as well as their prior 5 song EP That Night a Forest Grew) is available from Bandcamp as a "name your price" download.



Spokane's Odyssey are similarly in the early Cynic/Atheist realm of progressive metal, with nods to new school kids like the Faceless and Animals as Leaders. The three-piece operate without a vocalist, and so the three songs on The Conscious Devise exist purely as instrumentals, with two of them running at over 10 minutes. The EP is available as a "name your price" download.



In a more brutal vein are Cortexiphan, a collaboration between Californian multi-instrumentalist Steven Rose and Malaysian vocalist Dixon Jong. The mix of gurgling vocals and melodic tech death makes me think that this is what Obscura jamming with Cattle Decapitation would sound like. The five songs on Anathema: The Murk. The Scorn. The Guilt. are solid and thoroughly enjoyable, lacking only a bit of individuality; the EP often sounds like it could be from any number of similarly fleet-fingered techheads. But considering Cortexiphan only formed in November of 2012, this is an impressive debut with room to grow. The EP is available as a "name your price" download.



And finally, veering away from technical death metal into technical black metal is Xanthochroid. Their debut full-length Blessed He With Boils may be the best Emperor album that Emperor never released. The production, musicianship and songwriting are all impressive; Ihsahn better watch his back. The full album is available as a digital download for $10 - heftier than the most Bandcamp downloads, but it's clear that these guys have put more work into their product than the average band. [Word is the members of Xanthochroid were also responsible for those killer surf rock versions of Immortal and Darkthrone songs that amused me so much back in May - if that's the case, these guys have talent to burn.]


Dreams of Consciousness was voted the best metal blog of 2012 by the editors of Dreams of Consciousness metal blog. See for yourself.