Post by thesoundmonitor on Apr 17, 2004 6:36:00 GMT -5
TEAR GAS AND PLATE GLASS
The Sea Stranded Whipjack
(Independent)
It’s hard to believe that its been one and a half years since Tear Gas and Plate Glass bowled me over with their accomplished initial release, a crushing effort that
mixed sludge and doom to good effect and won them fans here and there deep in the underground. I was pleased to place one of that demo's songs on a personal mix
that was circulated to some community cognoscenti, several of whom called out the TG&PG tune as one of the better ones.
Now the Dick Brothers are back, and this time they're augmented with a third member. Like the first release, Nathan is on "throat destruction," while bro Matthew covers guitars, noises, and clean vox. Newbie Andries van den Boom, a veteran of everything from jazz to death metal, is on drums. The songs are as forward thinking as last time, mixing driving sludge and plodding, slo-mo doom courtesy of Andries' technical drumming, wall-of-jericho guitars, and intense, shredding vocals. 'The Search for Sagapenum' is an uptempo song with echoing vox, a well thought-out venture into sludge/doom that is more produced than the music from the first demo, yet equally down to earth. 'A Portolan of Musica Portamento' is for my money their strongest tune yet,
with plenty of clean vocals from Matthew moaning over a slow-building exercise in epic doom, disintegrating into a spacey midsection before raising the blast shields for a kick-ass ending.
It’s clear that TG& PG are taking the work more seriously these days, and that they've spent more time and effort developing their sound. Kudos for that, and for the fact that they've been able to polish their sound here and there without sucking the life and soul out of it. And big ups for the packaging as well: the whole thing comes in a DVD box with custom artwork and some laminated insert cards telling you what's what. If you're into scouting out gems from the underground, and like the thought of a band that's
inspired by Isis, Godflesh, Negative Reaction, Electric Wizard, and of course the almighty Black Sabbath, then write 'em at the band site listed below. From what I understand, there aren't many copies of this in existence.
Now that I think of it, I wonder how these guys would bring it off live? I'm thinking a tour with former E. Wiz-ers Ramsses might be just the thing.
by Kevin McHugh
Band Site: www.tgpg.co.uk
The Sea Stranded Whipjack
(Independent)
It’s hard to believe that its been one and a half years since Tear Gas and Plate Glass bowled me over with their accomplished initial release, a crushing effort that
mixed sludge and doom to good effect and won them fans here and there deep in the underground. I was pleased to place one of that demo's songs on a personal mix
that was circulated to some community cognoscenti, several of whom called out the TG&PG tune as one of the better ones.
Now the Dick Brothers are back, and this time they're augmented with a third member. Like the first release, Nathan is on "throat destruction," while bro Matthew covers guitars, noises, and clean vox. Newbie Andries van den Boom, a veteran of everything from jazz to death metal, is on drums. The songs are as forward thinking as last time, mixing driving sludge and plodding, slo-mo doom courtesy of Andries' technical drumming, wall-of-jericho guitars, and intense, shredding vocals. 'The Search for Sagapenum' is an uptempo song with echoing vox, a well thought-out venture into sludge/doom that is more produced than the music from the first demo, yet equally down to earth. 'A Portolan of Musica Portamento' is for my money their strongest tune yet,
with plenty of clean vocals from Matthew moaning over a slow-building exercise in epic doom, disintegrating into a spacey midsection before raising the blast shields for a kick-ass ending.
It’s clear that TG& PG are taking the work more seriously these days, and that they've spent more time and effort developing their sound. Kudos for that, and for the fact that they've been able to polish their sound here and there without sucking the life and soul out of it. And big ups for the packaging as well: the whole thing comes in a DVD box with custom artwork and some laminated insert cards telling you what's what. If you're into scouting out gems from the underground, and like the thought of a band that's
inspired by Isis, Godflesh, Negative Reaction, Electric Wizard, and of course the almighty Black Sabbath, then write 'em at the band site listed below. From what I understand, there aren't many copies of this in existence.
Now that I think of it, I wonder how these guys would bring it off live? I'm thinking a tour with former E. Wiz-ers Ramsses might be just the thing.
by Kevin McHugh
Band Site: www.tgpg.co.uk