Mono - "For My Parents" album teaser

Due for release on September 4, 2012 via Temporary Residence, Japanese kings (and queen) of awesomeness, Mono, release their new studio work, "For My Parents". Here's the first teaser video. I am stoked.

Year Of No Light - "Ausserwelt" CD

From France comes this formidable and majestic post-metal juggernaut which calls to mind the potent tribal nihilism of bands like Isis or Neurosis (sans caveman grunting, thankfully), all the while maintaining a crystalline drone/shoegaze guitar backdrop that could please fans of Mono or Explosions In The Sky. "Ausserwelt" opens with 20 minutes of "Persephone" (in 2 parts), and these crushing instrumentals aptly exhibit the massive, earth-crushing momentum of what must be one of France's most potent bands.

This album only contains 4 tracks, but make no mistake -- it's 48 minutes of carefully-crafted, intense psychedelic-metal that's so stunningly tectonic that YONL must aim to summon primordial beasts from beyond with every reverberating drum laceration and swirling guitar whirlpool. When it all winds down, on the 13-minute "Abbesse", a fleet of ambient sounds gently lulls the beast back to the abyss. An amazing, powerful, and standout release here. I am duly impressed. (Conspiracy Records)

Year Of No Light site

Year Of No Lightspace

Mono - "Holy Ground: NYC Live With The Wordless Music Orchestra" CD/DVD

Among their post-rock brethren, Japanese loud-soft rockers Mono are perhaps the most disciplined and symphonic of all. Their devastatingly intense live shows are consistently among the very best concerts I've ever seen, and it seems I'm not alone in that sentiment. So, joining up with a full orchestra to perform for 2 consecutive nights in New York doesn't seem much of a stretch for this band.

Building with the string section in the opener, "Ashes In The Snow", Mono and the Wordless Music Orchestra lead into the swarming crescendos of "Burial At Sea", as the band rides a cascade of swirling noise and bombastic percussion. "Pure As Snow" is epic -- with mop-haired guitarist Taka Goto kicking over his chair and attacking his guitar and effects boxes with reckless abandon. My favorite, "Halcyon (Beautiful Days)" is as beautiful and majestic as it gets, with the orchestra enhancing the band's gorgeous melodies and crushing finale.

Mono's strength lies in their mastery of juxtaposing gentle, soft guitar lullabies with powerful waves of amped-up noise. Their music is simultaneously energetic, lilting, monolithic, gentle, cathartic, peaceful, savage, and sorrowful...yet it always finishes with unquestionable hopefulness and humble humanity. "Holy Ground" is possibly the group at it's pinnacle. Mixing by Matt Bayles (Mastodon, Isis, Soundgarden) brings the live experience up to par with the studio recordings, while the DVD is a no-frills (but multi-camera) affair that more accurately represents the live experience than their 2007 tour documentary, "The Sky Remains The Same As Ever". "Holy Ground: NYC Live" is a splendid package, and priced more than reasonably. It's a must-see for fans as well as those curious about Mono's blindingly evocative and gorgeous experimental rock. (Temporary Residence)

Mono's website

Pelican - "What We All Come To Need" CD

Chicago's progressive/metal act migrates to Southern Lord for their 4th album, and this one follows much in the path of their past work -- lengthy, intricately-developed instrumental rock that takes aspects of heavy indie, doom metal, drone, and even math rock and adds a monumental heaviness that will endear them to fans of kindred spirits like Tool, Isis, Jesu, Mono, or Sunn O))). "The Creeper" features some guest guitars from Greg Anderson, himself of Sunn O))), but the music is purely Pelican. The twin guitar attack of Laurent Schroeder-Lebec and Trevor de Brauw interweaves delicate melodies below seas of monolithic riff. Pelican's heavy (and heady) music leaves behind any semblance of ego or pretense, as these players create songs that sometimes sweep and float, at at other times twist into a tumultuous firestorm of angst and thunderous momentum. Tracks like "Strung Up From The Sky" epitomize everything that Pelican stands for -- strong, muscular, and tight riffing, softer passages, a monstrous rhythm section, and melodies wafting around the gargantuan (song) structure. Nothing here is tired, rote, overplayed, or showy. Superb work, and perhaps Pelican's finest thus far. (Southern Lord)

Pelicanspace

Pelican page

Mono - "Hymn To The Immortal Wind" CD

10 years and 5 albums have now passed for Japanese quartet Mono, and in that time they have cemented themselves as one of the world's foremost purveyors of sad and melodic guitar sturm-und-drang. This group's wistful, gentle side is gorgeously emotive, full of wild-eyed wonder and quiet introspection. In songs like the opener, 'Ashes In The Snow', the peacefulness builds, then gives way to massive thunderclaps of dissonant noise and bombastic crescendos. And the presence of a full orchestra makes for an even more heightened attack -- strings, flutes, pianos, the works -- meld into Mono's traditional rock setup effortlessly. It all engages in a precise, well-mapped out series of dynamic, omnipotent, and dense instrumental passages, sometimes sad, but just as often brimming with a strong sense of hopefulness. Indeed, Mono are a force to be reckoned with. Production here is once again handled by the inimitable Steve Albini (veteran of too many indie bands to mention), who gives the group a very live, organic, and analog sound that is unaffected by studio trickery - what you hear is what you get. And what you get? Crushing, magnificent power framed by delicate passages of sustained splendor. 'Hymn To The Immortal Wind' is monolithic, triumphant and, in one word, remarkable. (Temporary Residence)

Mono website
Monospace

Here's Mono's new video, directed by Dimitri Galuret, courtesy of Human Highway Records Japan: