The Newish Math

(Uriah Heep) - (keyboards) + (heaviness^2) - (goofy elf references) + (bleak irony) + (10log(Candlemass/Distance_from_Sweden)) - (freaky crimped hair) = Solitude Aeturnus. Am I right, or am I just talking to my heads here??

Seriously, when I listen to Solitude Aeturnus, I hear Uriah Heep in there, and I also hear Candlemass in there, but I also hear Robert Mitchum reading selections from Incest Orgy, so nothing I hear is to be entirely trusted (let alone spoken of).

Either way, it's good stuff, nice well-executed doom metal* with the prototypical chunky, heavy riffs, clean vocals, and rather sedate pace. I hope they don't pull a fast one and whip a bunch of ambient stuff on me - given that they're from Texas, what would Saturday night ambient 'round the rehearsal space sound like? The popping of beer bottles, the frying of doomed insects trapped in the bug zapper, and somewhere in the far distance, the faint cry of "Anyone seen mah truck?" Come to think of it, that's probably an improvement over the ambient 'round the average Arizona rehearsal space, which consists almost entirely of the sound of dripping sweat, overheated bodies slumping to the ground with wet splats, and the survivors gasping "Holy crap it's hot! Whose idea was this anyway?"

I will now hoist myself atop my soap box and emit a generalization. The older Solitude Aeturnus sounds a bit mushy and grindy, which I happen to like. The newer stuff is cleaner and crisper and doesn't suffer from the (intentional or otherwise) scooping that results in the grindy sound. But I like that too.

What's sad about this whole exercise is that it started out with The Fratellis. I was continuing my project to widen the musical offerings on my iPod and got stuck on which Fratellis album was appropriate - Flathead, Costello Music, Here We Stand - and lacking expert opinion, I started fiddling around. Now, in the world of metal it has to be said that some bands have great names and others have great music. Among the best "names" in metal are Shadows Fall and Solitude Aeturnus (I don't know why but I really love those names) and I check them from time to time for new work. Shadows Fall is unfortunately a bit too metalcore for my liking. But Solitude Aeturnus I've always rather liked, though I was forced by iPod space limitations to not buy any of their albums. But that was then, and this is now. I guess what I'm saying is that I added a splendid Bruce Springsteen album called "Magic", but then I offset it with a Solitude Aeturnus album, so I'm right back to square one.

Meps!

* Do you think metal musicians wince when reviewers refer to their music as "nice"? It must feel like a high-grade Circle-K Freezee cold tumor.