This Is Book’s Music

Methodical chaos, this is what I thought of as I was listening to Terminal Lovers‘ new album, As Eyes Burn Clean (Public Guilt). These guys play well scripted songs with the kind of heaviness that will bring to mind the best of Sunny Day Real Estate, 65daysofstatic, and maybe a slight hint of a band that is highly respected around the world but I’m not going to mention them, in fear readers will think Terminal Lovers sound like them. They do not, but what they share is a love to take their music into unexpected directions within the boundaries of a song.

What I like is that they expand on what progressive rock has given to them, and takes it into worlds unknown or unexpected in the 1970’s. A track like “Ion Gate” (5.17mb) may sound like heavy metal appreciation, but then they’ll get into these melodic textures where it sounds atmospheric, almost in a Mars Volta/Coheed And Cambria sense but still retaining a Melvins-like heaviness. The best song on here has to be the 3-part, 23 minute side length (since this is being released on vinyl, I’m assuming this takes up the entire side 2) “Truth Between Errors”. I’m a sucker for a good side length opus, and these guys deliver through the many peaks and valleys they supply. What I mean is, sometimes they get into what sounds like a blitzkreig of distorted guitars where it sounds like you’ve entered into a wall of feedback. Underneath that a mid-tempo melody begins to surface and the bass guitar suddenly becomes meditative and then you’re thinking wait a minute, this sounds like a sludgy tribute to The Byrds‘ “Eight Miles High”, where that jingle-jangle Indian flavor comes through strong. It sounds incredible, foreign and distant (perhaps as intended), but it makes you smile (at least I did) because that’s pulls at your heartstrings.

With this style of music, one rarely talks about the technological side of it but then again, I’m sure a guitar or rock magazine will get into the Terminal Lovers’ gear or something. I go back to the beginning of the review where I say this is methodical chaos, because as noisy, sludgy, and forceful this sounds, it’s not random noise. The volume and the way these songs weld and move into each other from start to finish shows me they care for not only how these songs are interpreted, but by how they sound individually and as a whole. The final package comes out sounding like a rock opera, but without the opera, without the generalizations, without a storyline you have to follow. You’re following sound, although you’re also listening… you know what, just get the album and listen. Fans of hard rock, heavy metal, or independent-minded rock in general, as the non hard rock/heavy metal fan will enjoy this as much as the dedicated headbanger… it is something to enjoy. It will be a classic amongst those who know. Others, let them discover it on their own time. For us, let’s enjoy it today.