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Haven’t
written in over a week, which is a lot for me. I’ve been feeling
a bit exhausted from so much writing and trying to keep up with
an 8 reviews & one article per week schedule that I have kind of
burned myself. Every day I get home only to find packages with
CD’s, which to me is the best gift in the world, and every day I
feel the urge to write immediately, but a few moments later that
drive dissipates and at night the only thing I wanna do is
vegetate and read or pet my dog. I even thought it was some sort
of dry spell that would quickly pass. In the past every time I’d
feel like my brain couldn’t give anymore I’d just have to give
myself a break of two or three days and then that irresistible
urge to listen and type would be back strong. Not this time. So
I decided to give hard music a break, I thought maybe that was
the problem. Dusted off some old Fela Kuti and Heptones
classics and left their rustic freshness fill my ears and
recharge my spirit. That stuff gave me back some of that passion
that had been gone for over a week, but I rationalized whether
getting back to the hard stuff and judge it with total
objectivity would be easy. It hasn’t been but I am glad that the
first heavy CD I’ve been spinning since is Sins
by the Atlanta based band Irresistible. Sins truly is one
of those suckers that, like a bad infection, grows inside you
with every spin until it gets a controlling hold of you.
On the
surface though, Irreversible walks the typical vast ground
forged by bands like Neurosis and Isis. In other words there are
several peeks and valleys, big chords that shrink and expand,
heavy sounds that turn melodic and crystal clear, dramatic
eloquence and seemingly spectacular storytelling through
heartfelt cookie monster vocals and ethereal passages, etc. Yes,
it’s all there, but to Irreversible’s merit Sins is, if
not downright original, at least mostly a nearly flawless and
touching piece of flowing music. The album comes to a massive start
with “Tambora”; as an introduction it slowly erects itself and
gradually bends ass backwards through broken out of shape
guitars and agonizing vocals. Sins starts hard but as it
advances its depth grows and the band produces such a massive
sound it seems to carve wells in my conscious. I was glad this
was the first hard music record I hear after that wicked dry
spell because one, it is not totally typical and because two, it
has helped me recharge my metal batteries and has confirmed my
conviction that in fact, not all hard music has to be dumb. This
was no conversion or awakening moment. I did not find music back
because it was never lost, but Sins has charged me enough
to get going with this thankless gig at least for four more
weeks.
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