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A Storm Of Light: Forgive us our trespasses

02/06/11 || The Duff

Not to do the rest of this band a disservice (by completely omitting your performances from the review and not listing all your instruments played in the band members section – yeeeeeah, sorry), but the name that strikes the most the center of my bone®s when coming across A Storm of Light is Josh Graham. If you bitches want to make a foe of me, you’ll have no fucking clue what I’m talking about, but let me tell you before I violently rape your face that the guy is a member of the greatest band in the World (no, not The Melvins or Black Sabbath).

Neurosis have a reputation of being extremely talented, forward-thinking musicians who’ve devised a number of sub-genres in the “trawling sludge slow as shit” areas of metal’s classification, and attach not only a great deal of importance to the quality of the music which has always been of faultless caliber but also to the visual tying in with the instrumental aspect; this is where Josh Graham fits in, tackling a more musical responsibility in this four-piece doom/Neurisis band whose debut went largely unnoticed due to a lack of distinguishable traits, apparently.

Josh Graham carries out vocal as well as guitar duties, and although most would agree he is not a well-graded singer, his pretty much spoken parts with a lot of strain add nicely to the straightforward, dark nature of the music in a “Hrrrgngrn, I’m shitting my pants effortlessly at the thought of how fucked we all are!” kind of way; plus one commendable attempt at overcoming his restrictions as a monotonous vocalist by sounding like Layne Staley at the tail-end of track “Omega”, and we’re in the money when combined with a thick, meaty production and sweet-slow, pendulum riffs.

In short, his professionalism from one media to the other has transferred remarkably well; I can safely say as a massive Neurosis fan, on “Forgive Us Our Trespasses” A Storm of Light (abbreviated to the English word for “asshole”, maybe with an extra “L” on the end depending on which part of the country you’re from) have provided an album that would make genuine fans of the post-rock sludge scene moist in the pants.

Okay, jokes aside, the rest of the band sounds exactly as it should; as far as the four-piece metal band instruments go, they pull no punches. Other instruments covered include banjo, piano, a wurlitzer and modular synthesizer, all used to great effect if I even knew what the last two were – the desire is to creep out, not in the least through the use of several interlude “tracks” involving a young, sentient, freaky being speaking/whispering through a film of water about our extinction as a race. There are of equal importance a tonne of guest-musicians providing vocals, violin and cello; all just ambitious enough, not to the point of making this anything less than a killer doom record.

All told we have a twisting, sombre piece of magic that doesn’t surpass its origins but at the same time is fresh enough to warrant time, much like fellow Neurosis side-project Shrinebuilder. Recommended and keep an eye out for the band’s soon to be released new effort.

Information
Released: 2009
Label: Neurot Recordings
Website: www.astormoflight.com
Band
Josh Graham: guitars, vocals
Andy Rice: drums, percussion
Domenic Seita: bass
Joel Hamilton: guitars, percussion

Tracklist
01. Alpha (Law of Nature Pt 1)
02.Amber Waves of Gray
03.Tempest
04.The Light in their Eyes
05.Trouble is Near
06.Arc of Failure (Law of Nature Pt 2)
07.Midnight
08.Across the Wilderness
09.Time Our Savior (Law of Nature Pt 3)
10.Omega

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