- Apr 5, 2003
- 2,668
- 2
- 38
Skullflower - Tribulation
Crucial Blast - CRU55 - 8/22/06
By Brandon Strader
Tribulation opens with a lot of repetitive noise. White noise in the middle, some guitar feedback can be heard in the left channel, and the right channel also seems like white noise. This noise goes on for almost 10 minutes in "Lost In The Blackened Gardens Of Some Vast Star" and if you can listen to the whole thing, that's amazing... and somewhat painful to the ear. Skullflower has been hyped as a "trance-noise rock band" from the UK. I just kept waiting for the trance and the rock to kick in, this just sounds like a bunch of noise.
"Black Wind" is still noisey, yet it's got some riffs in the left channel almost impossible to make out. There's a whistling sound in the middle, and more white noise in the right channel... After a while, you can begin to sense a key in "Black Wind", and the notes seem to ascend and descend dissonantly in the middle of the left and center channels. It's still very noisey, though, like hooking up that $100 fender to a small amp turned all the way up using the noisiest pickup on the guitar. Just layers and layers of white noise and some guitar feedback. Sixty-six whole minutes of noisy guitar feedback. The artwork and the hype which included terms like "trance" and "rock" made this appear like something I could really enjoy, and I enjoy noise "music" up to a point, but only when it is build upon a darker foundation or builds up to a climax of some kind. This is just a lot of amateur noise that anyone could make.
It almost seems like a song is about to form on the fourth track, "Dying Venice", yet the bass in the left channel begins to become more chaotic and does not keep time, and the guitar noodling in the right channel doesn't follow along either. At least the white noise is gone for this one! Some chirpy computer-generated electronic sounds enter the center channel, and the song continues in this noisy pattern for the next 5 minutes. "Void of Roses" has somewhat of a middle-eastern riffing sound hidden beneath the distortion, and some cool fading-in guitar feedback sounds in the center channel. Well, each track has a distinct kind of noise and a different tone, yet there is no coherence whatsoever throughout the whole CD. If you really like noise, check out Tribulation.
2.5/10
UM's Review Rating Scale
Official Skullflower Website
Official Crucial Blast Website
Crucial Blast - CRU55 - 8/22/06
By Brandon Strader
Tribulation opens with a lot of repetitive noise. White noise in the middle, some guitar feedback can be heard in the left channel, and the right channel also seems like white noise. This noise goes on for almost 10 minutes in "Lost In The Blackened Gardens Of Some Vast Star" and if you can listen to the whole thing, that's amazing... and somewhat painful to the ear. Skullflower has been hyped as a "trance-noise rock band" from the UK. I just kept waiting for the trance and the rock to kick in, this just sounds like a bunch of noise.
"Black Wind" is still noisey, yet it's got some riffs in the left channel almost impossible to make out. There's a whistling sound in the middle, and more white noise in the right channel... After a while, you can begin to sense a key in "Black Wind", and the notes seem to ascend and descend dissonantly in the middle of the left and center channels. It's still very noisey, though, like hooking up that $100 fender to a small amp turned all the way up using the noisiest pickup on the guitar. Just layers and layers of white noise and some guitar feedback. Sixty-six whole minutes of noisy guitar feedback. The artwork and the hype which included terms like "trance" and "rock" made this appear like something I could really enjoy, and I enjoy noise "music" up to a point, but only when it is build upon a darker foundation or builds up to a climax of some kind. This is just a lot of amateur noise that anyone could make.
It almost seems like a song is about to form on the fourth track, "Dying Venice", yet the bass in the left channel begins to become more chaotic and does not keep time, and the guitar noodling in the right channel doesn't follow along either. At least the white noise is gone for this one! Some chirpy computer-generated electronic sounds enter the center channel, and the song continues in this noisy pattern for the next 5 minutes. "Void of Roses" has somewhat of a middle-eastern riffing sound hidden beneath the distortion, and some cool fading-in guitar feedback sounds in the center channel. Well, each track has a distinct kind of noise and a different tone, yet there is no coherence whatsoever throughout the whole CD. If you really like noise, check out Tribulation.
2.5/10
UM's Review Rating Scale
Official Skullflower Website
Official Crucial Blast Website
