27th September 2009

Audio

Eyal Maoz’s Edom - Somewhere
Hope and Destruction (Tzadik)

Edom is made up of Eyal Maoz on guitar, John Medeski on organs (you know, that Medeski), Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz on bass, and Ben Perowsky on drums. They’ve got another album from 2005, but I’m not yet hip to it; this one’s intrigued me enough such that that won’t be the case for long.  Hope and Destruction is a blending of psychedelic rock, prog metal, and ethnic music, and it works really well. The album as a whole is pretty excellent, but I should say there are a few less than stellar tracks.  Perhaps it’s just my sensibility, but as things move along, there are a couple of tracks that are just, well… dull.  But the star tracks are much more numerous, and they more than make up for some that, while not bad, just don’t really do it for me.  The first track, “Somewhere,” is definitely an excellent entry-point, reminiscent of maybe Melvins or Racebannon-type sludge metal.  Another cut, “Tsi,” is a heavy, acid-fuzz monster, and is a particular high point on the record, I think.  “Messenger” has some cool techno/house music things going on, which is something I would normally be hesitant to even admit exists.  Throughout the record, you can hear heavy influences of different ethnic music as well, including some klezmer-clarinet somewhere deep in there.

Like I said, there are low points.  ”Slight Sun” just makes me feel like I should be watching some sort of monster mash, or maybe a creature jamboree.  It has a sort of novelty-Halloween-song feel to it that I can’t really see myself ever getting into.  But they’re few and far between.

Tagged: getting into a serious thingdarkness and also there is metal