Review Summary: A musical bludgeoning from start to finish.
As an American, I've always considered Italy to be the home of the mafia, lasagna, Catholics and not really much else. Well thats not entirely true, they do have Novembre. All and all though, their music scene is an afterthought when compared with the rest of the continent. Think about it, Northern Europe releases nothing but quality metal album after quality metal album, the U.K. has their Britpop and shoegaze, and France has their world class skramz. Italy? Not so much. Luckily for Italy, they have Dead Elephant.
The sound on Dead Elephant's
Lowest Shared Descent is massive as it combines a Screamo framework with the sludgy metal stylings and tormented vocals of bands like Harvey Milk.
Lowest Shared Descent welcomes you with the visceral urgency of "Introducing My Eye, In Flames". The opening salvo of furious drumming buried underneath a mass of sludgy riffs and disturbing yowls is beyond intense. As it progresses to a cluster*** of demented, slurred speech it all coalesces to become a beautiful mess of a song. The walls of distortion and Coltrane-esque sax wankery that comprise "Post Crucifixion" stutter step into the massive "Black Coffee Breakfast". Echoing tritones and nimble drumming bleed into a massive distorted bass riff all to abruptly turn into a tangled wall of haunting noise that builds back up to a crescendo that puts most European emo bands to shame as is speeds faster and faster into a cathartic release. On "Abyss Heart" Dead Elephant switch gears and go from the raging sludge and Screamo amalgamation of the albums first half and start to drift into the post- metal/drone sound that closes out the album. Murmuring metallic noise and a rumbling low end meld into the slab detuned, Australasia era- Pelican riffing that makes up "Clopoxil".
Lowest Shared Descent comes to a haunting close with the buzzing soundscapes of "The Worst & The Best", a relaxing ambient piece that wafts into oblivion on a gentle electric hum.
As an album,
Lowest Shared Descent, is all over the place, but that's what makes it work. There's enough of the sludgy wall of riffs sound embedded in their, albeit more raw, Screamo template so that when they start to invest in it fully, it seems like a natural progression in the movement of the album rather than an abrupt change in musical direction. It all comes together to create an ever shifting sonic landscape that holds you tight and never lets go.
http://www.myspace.com/thedeadelephant
