Review Summary: 21:36 of pure adrenaline
It begins with nothing but a light sprinkling of atmospheric noises and sounds, interspersed with random notes and clicks. It goes on like that for a while, slowly building momentum and creating just the tiniest bit of tension and suspense. The first five minutes, you are expecting a Brian Eno song almost, light in its delivery as it may be. Then, after a few innocuous snare hits, you are hit with a thunderous and heavy as h
ell guitar riff. It hits you out of nowhere, assaulting you from every which way. The song has all of the sudden turned into some sort of dissonant sludge metal guitar fest. Then, as quickly as it started, it all goes away, and we are brought back to the quite calm that we had grown accustomed to at the beginning.
All this in the first third of the song.
All the Empires of the World
…Will be Laid to Waste is the first true recording they have made, they being All the Empires of the World and the recording being
…Will be Laid to Waste. A mix of post rock, slight electronica and a big dose of sludge metal, All the Empires of the World recorded this EP (which contains only a self titled track) within a few months of their inception, and the result for such a short amount of time is astounding. While the one song, clocking in at an astounding 21 minutes and 36 seconds, does tend to drone on for too long a period at a time, the fusion of all the separate parts is top notch.
The song doesn’t vary itself too much in the traditional sense. Its made up of soft, ambient electronic passages, heavy sludge face rips, and then dissonant post rock/metal sections reminiscent of Neurosis or Pelican. You wont find much outside of this, but within all that the members of the band show off their immense talent, particularly in the area of drumming. The songs 22 minutes don’t fly by, but you aren’t left trying to pick out what they should have left out either, just appreciating the good things you just heard.
There isn’t much else to say about
…Will be Laid to Waste. It’s a relatively short record (or relatively long song, depending on how you view things). I could discuss the jam near the end of the first heavy part, but that would only spoil the record for you by going into specifics. If you are a fan of long, drawn out post rock numbers and can appreciate some heavyness in your fairy music, you’ll dig the hell out of this. If you love droning sludgey tunes but can deal with some build up and anticipation for your bro-tunes, you’ll love this EP. If not, I’m still going to recommend it, because its one of the most promising songs from the first half of 2008.
