Uncommon music criticized by the common man. (Or, exercises in futility masquerading as critical thought.)

Monday, February 25, 2008

Free Music! All For You!

Intentionally free, too. The Pax Cecilia are giving away some good music on their website. Their album from last year, Blessed Are The Bonds, is a beautifully crafted work of post/ambient/whatevah metal (for those who don't waste too much of their life reading music reviews, this is metal that is less synchronized hair pinwheeling and more art-students playing metal for other art students...that sounds like a slam, but it's really not. At least not in this case), and they're just giving it away. I know, in this era of "All music is free music, man!", that's not exactly huge. But I like it about them all the same.

Anyway, check it out. The music crosses off your entire post-metal ingredient list: ambient soundscapes, moments of unhinged riffing, "non-metal" instrumentation (piano figures prominently), vocals that avoid cookie-monster death metal or screeching black metal cliches (when there are vocals, it's usually sung softly with a brief tumble into yelling), drones...the whole nine. And while music like this is not exactly unprecedented, it's not quite a yawn-inducing redundancy that similar bands in this genre create far too regularly. And while this all sounds like damning with faint praise, I assure you it's not. Blessed Are The Bonds succeeds where other albums fail because it travels a well-worn path and manages to make the ride far more breathtaking than you would expect. From the riff-extravaganza in "The Progress" to the excellent string work woven through the guitar chug on the album's standout, "The Tree", The Pax Cecilia manage to make the familiar seem exciting.

Check it out.