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ANGEL EYES  And For A Roof A Sky Full Of Stars  CD   (Underground Communique)   10.98


Here's a harsher take on that epic, metallic post-rock sound, this time from the Chicago-area band Angel Eyes. This disc delivers two long songs in just under half an hour, each one mapping out an elaborate journey through valleys of slow-burning instrumental heaviness and blasts of apocalyptic fury. It takes alot for a band that is messing with this kind of stuff to really stand out nowadays, since the metallic post-rock sound has been done to death over the past few years, but Angel Eyes step up to the challenge with a sound that seems to come from a bunch of guys that have their roots in hardcore but also are capable of delving into lush Western soundscapes and shoegazey washes of sound as powerful as what Souvenir's Young America did on their An Ocean Without Water. The first track begins softly with waves of shimmering guitars and floating feedback swirling around a central minor key melody, slowly building into a sad slowcore dirge filled with shimmering Ennio Morricone style strains and reverb-drenched guitars, layers of guitars gliding over each other, becoming louder and louder until the band erupts into crushing sludge metal with sickening slashed throat screams and a heartrending epic guitar melody soaring overhead. The second track is heavy from the word go, starting off with deep, rumbling guitars and busy drumming patterns that flow into a heavy hypnotic shoegazer sludge jam, little melodies popping up out of the heavy riffing, the whole band backing off every few minutes into a quiet stillness where the drums are heard way off in the distance and a lone guitar chimes away before everything crashes back into majestic heaviness. Those harsh vocals show up again in the middle of the song, dueling shrieks and howling screams wrapping around one another, and everything becomes even heavier, the melodic riff and burly drumming lumbering to a close while delay-soaked guitars build en masse, fading out into burnt feedback and mysterious sounding voices. Beautiful, crushing metallic rock that is top freaking notch, it's got that tumbleweed blowing, Western sky burn that I love, like Souvenir's and Across Tundras, but the heaviness is gnarlier, sludgier, with more of a crusty hardcore feel. Recommended. Comes ina silkscreened Arigato Pak style case.