Trinacria - Travel Now Journey Infinitely
Continuing my series on weird, noisy metal stuff I'm taking a look at Norwegian super-group Trinacria's new album "Travel Now Journey Infinitely." The band is a collaboration between members of Norwegian metal stalwarts Enslaved and electro-noise duo Fe-mail (who, yes, are female).
And yes, this record is weird. And noisy. And metal.
And pretty good, save a few caveats.
According to their MySpace page, the album was "composed" by one of the members, who then brought on the other members to perform it, and now they're a real band, or something like that.
I don't know.
What I do know is that this is one NOISY fucking album. I also know that it's one disjointed fucking album, which is both the best and the worst thing about it. I tend to think that albums should be cohesive and coherent, rather than scattershot (see Ryan's review of the Wildildlife record for a discussion about this) and this record is definitely scattershot. Some of the songs sound like they're by different bands.
For example, the first song sounds like Enemy of the Sun era Neurosis. Real hypnotic guitar riffing, tribal kind of drumming, and lots of noise and samples running over the whole thing, with some throaty screaming layered over everything.
The second song transitions into something that borders on some San-Diego hardcore kind of shit. There's some real dissonant guitar work, blast beats, and a lot of white noise breaking everything up.
Then the third track breaks into something that seems like some cross between primitive black metal and uptempo power metal. For real. That's how I would describe it.
Then we move back to some more Neurosis style heaviness, this time, mixed with some kind of Mono-esque, epic sweeping melody for the big, awesome, epic finish.
So yeah. The record is a little all over the place. It's a mix of so many different genres of metal, with all kinds of white noise slathered all over it.
Now this can be a weakness in that I find some of the tracks to be way less compelling than others, just because the genre they're kind of leaning towards on that track is something that doesn't appeal to me. The second track, for example, the dissonant one with the blast beats, doesn't really grab me nearly as much as some of the slower, more crushing stuff.
Having said that, because the album is so scattershot it has a little bit of something for everyone. I also have to say that i give them some credit for mixing some sounds which wouldn't normally go together.
What appeals to me most about this record is the use of noise. There has been noise music for a long time and a lot of bands incorporate noise into their stuff, but I think Trinacria does it in a really cool way. It reminds me of Suffering Luna, who I've already mentioned once or twice on this blog, in that they really use the noise almost as another instrument rather than just layering it on top of the "real" instruments.
Personally, part of why I've wanted to review noisier records is because I think that technology has allowed for musicians to use noise in new ways. A lot of bands are doing cool things with noise, like using it to create very beautiful, symphonic sounds (see my Pyramids review earlier), crushingly heavy sounds, etc. I like that noise is being used as an instrument by these bands, rather than as something that is almost an anti-instrument, as noise is traditionally used by rock bands. Noise does not, by default, just have to be dissonant or grating or angry sounding. It can have the same sonic and emotional range as any music, and I like seeing bands use noise in ways that redefine it.
Trinacria is one of these bands. This is a noisy fucking record and the noise is consistently used in a way which moves the music forward. In many ways, the noise makes the record. It's what separates this record from others and makes it such a compelling listen, despite some of its inconsistencies.
So overall, I would argue that this is a pretty enjoyable record with a few parts that are too weird for their own good, but with a generally cool aesthetic which uses different kinds of sounds and textures in a compelling way. If that sounds cool to you I would suggest you give it a listen. It's worth it alone for the epic climax of the record, which is one of the most beautiful walls of sound I think I've ever heard.
