One Starving Day - Broken Wings Lead Arms To the Sun; Vanessa Van Basten - S/T
Today I'm taking a look at two great records by Italian ambient-metal type bands coming to us from awesome Pennsylvania label KNVBI records. First up is One Starving Day's Broken Wings Lead Arms To the Sun
One Starving Day are one of those bands that people say sounds like Neurosis or Isis because they have long songs that are sometimes "light" and sometimes "heavy." In fact, the description the label provided for the band even references these bands as being the sonic guideposts you should look to.
I'm putting "light" and "heavy" in quotes here because I would personally say that One Starving Day never gets particularly "light" or "heavy." Even when they kick on all the distortion and rock out they still don't really get "heavy." I never feel like I'm being kicked in the gut or buried under a giant pile of rocks, or anything.
This brings me to my point: Neurosis and Isis are some lazy ass comparisons for One Starving Day. I'm not saying they're bad comparisons, necessarily, just obvious but inapt ones.
The band that One Starving Day really has an affinity with is Suffering Luna, whose splits with Gasp and Dystopia set the bar for spaced-out, psychedelic, screamy metalcore. I'm not sure if the folks in One Starving Day have even heard of Suffering Luna (I'm under the impression that most people haven't, please note the six whole MySpace friends) but that was the first thing I thought of when I heard this.
Really, One Starving Day is a band that's all about the journey in each song. I've seen some reviews of this record that complain that the band doesn't build up to enough of a heavy payoff when they kick out the jams at the climactic moments of each song. That is, to a degree, true, but I don't think it's the best way to think of this record. The songs are long and winding and, yeah, they do eventually bust out into the heavier stuff, but your real focus should be on the labyrinthine passages of trippy, atmospheric drones that get you to that breakdown rather than the minute or two where they have their guitars blaring at full volume.
Perhaps a good comparison would be the new A Silver Mt. Zion record (reviewed previously by Ryan) but with more drones and a guy screaming over it. I don't know, exactly, it's hard to exactly classify this record, but I find it pretty enjoyable. If you let it be what it is it's a great listen.
I should also point out that the vinyl version of this record is fucking beautiful. It's this sweet clear vinyl with a black gatefold with a cool design on it, AND it comes with an extra seven inch with some shorter, interlude songs on it. Fucking awesome. Get it on vinyl.
One Starving Day Website
One Starving Day at MySpace
---
Now this rules.
I'm not really sure how to describe it. This is another one of those bands that people will compare to Isis, despite it being, yet again, a totally inapt comparison.
Okay...
first off, the vinyl is freakin' beautiful, once again. It's brown and yellow swirled. A friend of mine actually looked at it and said "holy shit that's cool." It's nice to see a label taking their aesthetic seriously and putting out cool vinyl.
On to the music. VVB deliver a sort of drony, instrumental rock that's sometimes real thick, sometimes real sparse, and always ass-kicking. Unfortunately, I can't think of anything to compare it to. It's not too far from some other heavy, instrumental bands (insert your favorite one here), but it has a real nuanced, varied sound. There's a lot of melody, a lot sludge, a lot of drone, and a lot of awesome.
Clearly, I'm at a loss for words and comparisons on this one, huh? I'm going to suggest that you just head over to their website and check it out. There's not much I can say about it besides it's real worth rocking out to, especially on sweet, sweet colored vinyl, which, of course, makes everything sound better.
