Periphery - You decide.

Since I haven't posted anything in a while, and to celebrate the signing of my second favorite band, Periphery, to Sumerian Records, I thought this could be the only logical next post I could possibly make, ever. Anyone who likes them already knows (or should know) that they've got over a hundred demos, mostly due to their main guitarist, "Bulb," and his ability to soldier on for weeks-on-end doing nothing but writing neck-breaking riffs and programming killer drum tracks, all without a wink of sleep. Think of these two mixes as Best Ofs, made from those demos, for a band that hasn't released anything yet.

Imagine Nothing era Meshuggah, but then picture them as young, energetic, twenty-something humans. Periph sounds a little bit like that.

Note: Mix 1 spans the band's entire career and focuses on the tracks they took the time to record vocals for. Mix 2 is the in-between, instrumental kickassery we all know and love.

Note 2: No, 3 is not a mix I made after making this post, and it's definitely not just a mix of 1 and 2 with some extras added in because I'm an idiot and didn't think to mix the two until now. No, it's not an hour and nineteen minutes long, and it will not rock the ever-loving fuck out of your car. Also, I don't apologize to the three people that downloaded 1 and 2.

2009 - Homemade Bromosexual Goodness @Avg. 168
2009 - Homemade Bromosexual Goodness 2 @Avg. 136
2009 - Homemade Bromosexual Goodness 3: Final @Avg. 142

2010 - Homemade Bromosexual Goodness 4 @This post

Sound & Shape - The Love Electric (2009)

Ever wonder what monstrosity would spring from the murky depths of The Fall of Troy if they simmer'd down a little and got a much less annoying vocalist that didn't scream? Yeah, well, here's what might come of it, although it's no monster. In fact, The Love Electric is pretty breathtaking while it lasts. The singer has that odd timbre that only he and Gavin Hayes from Dredg seem to have: oddly melancholic, yet powerful. He's also got some sick vocal lines that almost seem to be ripped straight from Queen albums too old to matter.

For anyone who enjoys calm post-hardcore - minus the core - with a great sense of pacing and ole fashioned non-pitch corrected wailing.

Myspace
@V2

The Pax Cecilia - Blessed are the Bonds (2007)

Like the last post, this album belongs on a plateau of good things to come from post-rock in the last few years. Most of the more underground Urban Outfitter-inclined music fans have heard it, and it's probably even somehow overrated by those same rabid groups, but fuck me if this really isn't essential in some way or another. I'm definitely exaggerating, but take that last sentence with only half a grain of salt. Blessed are the Bonds is a fantastic album, chock full of strained passages and the kind of desperation only a dying non-theist knows.

One difference to note between this album and the last, however, is that they're almost complete opposites of one another. These Monsters... was relatively subdued, particularly in the climaxes, while this one thrives on them and emerges from "The Hymn" with the "Most Intense Post-Rock Album" award. For anyone who loves post-rock with tons of experimental and ambient flourishes, and maybe a dash of that screaming stuff.

@320: Part 1 & Part 2