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lyrics mix thematically with an extended soaring guitar solo to end the 6:25-minute track:“ Beauty fades, death decays... branches break, roots remain... And when you sit and picture me / Remember sitting in the sun, dancing in the rain / The end is not the end you see / It ' s just the recognition of a memory.” That’ s about as optimistic as Mastodon gets.“ Ancient Kingdom” provides more best-of-album moments with its lyrics about a sultan fleeing battles literally as well as“ pain in mind” battles. Bassist Troy Sanders belts out the story of an ancient kingdom that still remains but crumbles slowly, as well as the“ ageless sounds” that“ never die” and instead“ ride beyond mortality.” The musical arrangement on this song and on all others is both fresh and timeless.“ Clandestiny,” with Ghostlike synthesizer parts, takes a more ominous lyrical approach. A metallic, robotlike voice at one point makes for an otherworldly aesthetic as other lyrics suggest self sacrifice for the greater good:“ Give your life, so I can live.”“ Andromeda” embodies“ chronic delusions” in both lyrical content(“ It never ends / enough is enough”) as well as aggressive guitar riffs to match the progression of ideas and sounds.
Finally,“ Jaguar God,” the closing song at 8-minutes in length, represents the most theatrical arrangement with three distinct movements, started with Brent Hinds’ acoustic guitar ballad introduction. It all collapses with a soulful guitar solo outro that punctuates the album’ s overall ambition and majesty. Appearing 5 / 13 at Aragon Ballroom, Chicago
- Jason Scales
9
HERE LIES MAN Here Lies Man
( RidingEasy)
Here Lies Man navigates the path set by The Budos Band’ s 2014 album Burnt Offering, but sets the controls for the heart of the sun. Featuring guitarist Marco Garcia of Antibalas, Here Lies Man weaves together intoxicating Afrobeat rhythms and thundering doom-metal riffs. The heavy rhythm section is both the foundation and foreground of songs like“ Letting Go.” The songs include vocals, but their fuzzed-out, psych-rock treatment and mantra-like repetition during the propulsive“ I Stand Alone” serve more to amplify emotion than convey a distinct message. The furious pace relaxes slightly for the tense and eerie“ So Far Away,” as clouds of reverb, parlor organ and disembodied vocal drift behind a dire Black Sabbath-styled riff. The combined effect of drummer Geoff Mann’ s polyrhythm and Garcia’ s acid guitar during“ You Ain’ t Goin’ Nowhere” and“ Belt of the Sun” may leave listeners perplexed. Should you dance with wild abandon, or bang your head? This album should come with a safety warning about the risk of serious spinal injury if both are attempted at once.
– Jeff Elbel
8
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diagnosis, early in her sabbatical.“ I was so depressed when Grace was ill, then I got depressed just leaving the band and having that part of your life cut off, and then seeing Stephen go away and seeing that I got replaced so quickly,” she recalls.“ And being replaced wasn’ t a very nice feeling when you’ d been in the band for so long. So having the cancer thing was like I couldn’ t see any end to the depression, even five years on.” She’ s a ten-year survivor now. But the close call made her examine her life in deeper detail.“ Sowhen I got the chance to go back( to New Order), I thought,‘ Yeah, if I’ m happy – if I keep on being happy in the band, I’ ll do it. But I don’ t want to commit to anything, long term.” Touring proved so exhilarating – even though founding bassist Peter Hook had departed the group in a much more acrimonious, litigious fashion, replaced by Tom Chapman – that Gilbert agreed when Sumner suggested that they re-enter the studio for Music Complete. She found that things had changed over the years. Joy Division had always been something of a boy’ s club, with Curtis being the first member to get married and have a child. So the men – including Morris – would stay in the studio recording until all hours, while their women stayed at home minding the kids. When Gilbert first met Curtis and company, her all-girl punk band The Inadequates was rehearsing in the same building. The group gave her a ride home one evening, on the proviso that she buy one of their early singles. She began dating Morris, and when Curtis passed, Joy Division ended, and Sumner wanted to change musical direction as New Order.“ They didn’ t want to emulate something that
was very special, and especially Ian,” she says.“ So choosing me to join the group was coming from a different place. And when I left – or when I had to leave – and my daughter was ill – I think you definitely missed something about me.”
For Music Complete, mom no longer headed home from the studio at dusk to oversee the kids – at 17 and 21, they were old enough to be left on their own. She and Morris also have their own home studio, where they could perfect potential song ideas, and then play them in collaboration with the rest of the group, something they’ d never done before. Technology had greatly changed in Gilbert’ s years away – nowadays she can recreate complicated tones and melodies onstage via computer, sans clunky oldschool synthesizers, samplers, and sequencers. And the cameo appearances, she adds, were invitations that were immediately accepted.“ So they were just songs that happened as we went along. Barney( Sumner) had that Brandon track for a long time, but it was good how everybody agreed – we didn’ t want to make a big fuss, or make some big announcement that we were making a new record. We just wanted to bring it out. And we weren’ t sure how the Peter Hook thing was going to play out, if people without him in the band. So we just took tiny steps.”
As a mother, Gilbert made many unselfish sacrifices. Did her daughters appreciate her decade-long tabling of stardom to give them a normal home life? She snorts. Exactly the opposite, she explains:“ They’ re very resentful that they didn’ t get to go on tour with us. And the annoying thing is that they’ re both into music – one went in the singing direction, and the other is in a band. I thought I’ d done a really good job of steering them away, but no. Appearing 9 / 15-17, Riot Fest, Douglas Park, Chicago( Date TBD)
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