Aquarius Records: Search Results for Title: Pills Against The Ageless Ills

Aquarius Records: Search Results for Title: Pills Against The Ageless Ills

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album cover SOLEFALD Pills Against The Ageless Ills (Century Media) cd 14.98
The first Solefald record 'The Linear Scaffold', knocked our fucking socks off. Furiously heavy and relentlessly crushing (with amazing cover art courtesy of Norwegian artist Odd Nerdrum). So we were so excited for the arrival of their second album 'Neonism' only to be surprised, and completely disappointed. 'Neonism' was all silly techno metal or industrial pop metal, with stupid lyrics about Calvin Klein and crap like that (that album marked the birth of their 'Designer rock and roll' concept). So we were a bit worried about the new record, only to be surprised and completely AMAZED. This record is so fantastic, falling somewhere between Solefald's two extremes, managing to be weird but not stupid, heavy and totally metal, but not in the least bit generic. Crushing blasts of black metal are sparsely dotted throughout a landscape of soaring melodic vocals, catchy pop songs cleverly disguised as metal, garage-y bits complete with jangle guitar and tambourine, and weird new wave parts with eighties synth and faux British accents. The record starts off with weeping violin that is buried beneath a furious avalanche of black metal noise with some of the best singing we've heard in black metal, and we mean -SINGING-, as in: great voice, belting it out, not like that fake Viking chanting bullshit that is the 'clean singing' on most black metal records. And the record continues to get weirder and catchier and is coming dangerously close to being my favorite metal record of the year. Weird vibrato guitar melodies, and super melodic syncopated math-rock rhythms butt up against gently strummed guitars and super catchy vocal lines. Staccato strings and harmony vocals weave in and out of massive riffs. The sound veers crazily from Nordic black metal to Faith No More to Katatonia while the vocals similarly flit from Faith No More-era Mike Patton to the melancholy sorrowful wail of Katatonia, to that sort of half sung / half spoken Einsturzende Neubauten vocal to sexy Marilyn Manson-ish growls to a spot-on Richard Butler (Psychedelic Furs) complete with the British accent. Made Allan and Andee think that if those punks in The Breakfast Club listened to black metal we'd be hearing Solefald on the radio two decades later instead of the Simple Minds. This record is so good it seems hard to believe these guys are even slightly joking, but you be the judge. This is from their website:
"We all know how difficult it is to cultivate good taste in music. If you do have good taste in music, of course you know about SOLEFALD! We are the only band in Metal music with good taste.
But what about the music? Do we laugh at our music? Of course not. We are Metal's sensitive guys. You know us. We can safely affirm that NOTHING is more serious than our music. Yes, correct! We can even affirm that nothing is more IMPORTANT than our music!
Our music is perfect. What does it mean that it is perfect? It means that you will die when you listen to it. Death will sweep you under Solefald's wings like seven winds sweep seven oak leaves swiftly away into the winter sky!
But we can assure you: You will not die if you listen to our advice. Solefald believe it helps talking about the things that hurt. How can we help you? It is nothing Solefald want more than to be able to help you. Sit down and relax. Have something to drink, and try to forget about death. If you still feel bad, let us talk about it.
We are good boys. Our music, though, is so perfect it is lethal. It is not our fault that we are just TOO good.
Solefald dream about a happy life for everybody. That is why we make an effort to warn you. We warn you because we care about you. Because we want to live with you and everybody else in the best of all possible worlds! Be reasonable, burn our album before it burns you.
We called it Red Music with Black Edges.
We called it Radical Designer Rock'n'Roll.
IT DID NOT HELP. THEY DIED ANYWAY."
If only all records were this unpredictable and exciting and kick ass. Andee's metal record of the year for sure!!
RealAudio clip: "Hyperman"
RealAudio clip: "Pornographer Chin"
RealAudio clip: "Charge Of Total Affect"

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