It's difficult to accurately describe what's going on here except to say that if you like Mastodon and Baroness, there's a pretty good chance that you'll like Giant Squid as well. Their music is doom-laden, yet highly progressive. The guitars of Squid display a distinct enough tone to seperate them from the two aformentioned bands, but not so much that you couldn't picture all three of these groups on the same bill. I don't know if there's already been a music journalist who's christened this sub-genre with a name yet, but it wouldn't be too far from the mark to describe this stuff as 'Art-Metl'. Can't call it Progressive Metal because that term conjures up thoughts of groups like Dream Theater and Symphony-X. And, these three bands are pretty far removed from that direction anyway. But, while the songs are, on average, much shorter than the material evidenced on the typical 'DT' recording, Squid's music is still highly progressive, extremely artistic and instantly recognizable as a new and original direction. The songs are accesible and melodic, yet there's also a controlled use of dissonance permeating much of their work. There's some sparse layering, a heavy reliance on atmospherics and periodic tinges of keyboard and horn accompaniment scattered throughout the album, that, when all taken together, gives this band a very deep, multidimensional sound. This dynamic is furthered by the decison to pair up a male and female voice on many of the vocal parts. If you demand a level of cerebral sophistication from your Hard Rock/Metal, then Giant Squid's Metridium Fields is probably for you.
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