Metridium Fields

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prefixmag.com: Metridium Fields is an eating machine, swallowing broad swaths of the musical panorama and squeezing out a dinosaur dump of mythic proportion. The general sound is as much brachiosaurus as elusive sea beast -- plodding dropped-tuned sludge metal walking side-by-side with Arabian instrumentals and forlorn indie-rock songwriting. Plaintive trumpet lines burble up unexpectedly, adding to the gloom from analog synthesizer drones and one-fingered power chord. Mastodon may have its great white whale, but Metridium Fields proves there's room for more than one leviathan in the Eclectic Metal Sea. Engineered by Billy Anderson (High on Fire, Melvin, Mr. Bungle) and produced by Jason Rufuss Sewell, Metridium Fields is a remake of Giant Squid's debut album, which the members released themselve. There is a decided looseness to the performance quality. It's not amateurish, but it lacks the obsessive precision of most heavy metal, bringing a sincerity that outshines professional glo. Based on the variety of influences here, that relative looseness seems less a matter of capability than it is a result of a band composed of members who grew up listening to different things and found a common ground in the gloom and doom stoner rock at its core. Aaron Gregory and his wife Aurielle play guitars and share vocal duty. His lead vocals range from a Serj Tankian-inflected wail to the guttural bass rasp of the black-metal genre. Hers tend toward lilting, eerie coos that summon images of the soundtrack the aftermath of an epic Tolkien battle. She steals the show in the coda of the nine-and-a-half-minute "Versus the Siren," coming on the heels of, in order, a lengthy, bruising two-chord vamp; an '80s-style keyboard tone and riff that recedes while the drums pound a heavy beat; then several minutes of tight, crunchy distorted full-band hit. It is gorgeou, powerful, and heartbreaking, and somehow it works perfectly. .

via Last.fm

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