The Sound Of Animals Fighting

Lover, The Lord Has Left Us

Written by: PP on 10/07/2006 23:57:12

Equal Vision is known for their characteristic, truly unique bands. Their previous flagship was Bear Vs Shark, and now The Sound Of Animals Fighting, which consists of members from Days Away, Chiodos, RX Bandits and Circa Survive, who have shifted more than 250,000 records collectively.

"Lover, The Lord Has Left Us" is their sophomore album and much like the first one, strange would be a rather mild word to describe it. Starting off with a chaotic white-noise filled trumpet solo intro track, the second one-minute track "Un'Aria" is completely a capella with oddly harmonic singing, which sets the mood of the album to be something indescribably odd. "Skullflower"'s weird effects and distant drumming are complemented by Anthony Green's (ex-Saosin, now Circa Survive) incredibly beautiful singing, which reminds all of us why he is considered the best emo/indie singer to date. The fourth track "My Horse Must Lose" continues with the peculiar effects that sound out of this world - whether they are computer generated or keyboard infused it is hard to say, but they range from unorganized intergalactic-space travel sounds to soft-as-silk harmonies on the background, while members from all contributing bands alternate on the vocal duties, resulting in countless vocal styles being introduced as the song progresses forward.

But it is not until the sixth song "Horses In The Sky" where the band dazzles you with absolute brilliance. Its post-punk meets absolute sonic exploration is simply said the best stuff I've heard in over a year. Anthony Green's utterly magnificent vocal work is almost overshadowed with one of the most innovative guitar riff's I've ever heard, and add on top the hypnotic nintendocore meets drum n bass meets post-rock meets (insert a completely unsuitable genre here) other instruments and you can't help but listen to the song 20 times in a row, and even so you find so many new things on each listen that it's a new song every time. Bring in The Mars Volta style progressive guitar-solo on top of that.. you get my point.

"Stockhausen, Es Ist Gehirn, Das Ich Suche" doesn't fall much short from the previous. It's one of the most vivid songs in terms of painting textures in your mind: You can't help but think of an empty, desolate wild west town with creaking saloon doors, and two lonesome cowboys ready to draw against each other with those rolling bushes being blown away by the gentle wind. All of the prior comes just from the soft piano-playing and the slow chords before it all changes towards the middle of the five minute piece when Anthony delivers yet another set of chillingly stunning vocals. Suddenly all of this is interrupted by Opera-style singing in German and drum-effects that sound like a bunch of garbage cans and other similar equipment have been utilized to create possibly the weirdest beat you'll ever hear. Next on the line we have "Prayers On Fire" with loud prayers sung in arabic by a seemingly middle-eastern female voice!? Everyone knows white noise but what about ORANGE NOISE in "The Golden Boy That Was Swallowed By The Sea", a spoken-out, echoed short story told in a frightening, serious voice that somehow reminds you of the movie 5th element. We've still got four songs left of which one is a ten-minute (!!) progressive piece again filled with inconceivable sound effects. Exactly how the guys came up with all this is beyond my comprehension. And it doesn't end here, the submarine sounding (I'm not kidding) "St. Broadrick Is In Antarctica" features poetry from the Dredg mastermind Gavin Hayes triggering a pause from the effects in order to truly enjoy the beautiful spoken out poem.

"Lover, The Lord Has Left Us" went straight into the top5 weirdest albums I've heard, which already boasts of the likes of HORSE The Band, The Fall Of Troy, Between The Buried And Me and other groundbreaking bands. After the album, I'm left hoping that Circa Survive & co all break up to focus on The Sound Of Animals Fighting full time, for so fantastically original this effort is.

9

Download: Horses In the Sky
For the fans of: Circa Survive, Bear Vs Shark, Portugal. The Man, Sígur Rós
Listen: 2 MP3s + 2 Streams @ Myspace

Release date 29.05.2006
Equal Vision
Provided by Target ApS

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