I got my Heavens picture disc in the mail yesterday. I’ve been waiting awhile for this one because it shipped out of the U.K. The band was a one album side project of Alkaline Trio frontman Matt Skiba and F-Minus‘s bassist Joe Steinbrick. The album is definitely a departure from both artist’s comfort zone but some how feels at home. It feels like they set to put out an album reminiscent of Joy Division and themselves; with skeletons, voyeurism, blood, and synthesizers. Unfortunately, they only did this one album and an amazing cover of Love Will Tear Us Apart.
The record is a 7” single for the song, “Patent Pending”. The b-side is the same song but a remix by Lovett. I can’t find a sample of the remix anywhere so I guess you will just have to buy it to listen!
Epitaph Records was cool enough to do a video for this song too, which rarely happens for projects like this.
DEATH IS THE ANSWER THE ANSWER TO MY PAAAAAAAYYYYYEEEERRS! YEEEEEEAAAAAAYAYAAAAHHH.
And then the guitars are like, bwaaaaang crunch, chug chug. Followed by great riff after great riff.
Closing In by Early Man is one of my favorite albums. I’m not really totally sure how I heard about it. Somewhere on the internet in late 2005. I’m pretty sure I picked it up when I was a senior in high school. Got it from Best Buy on what I’m pretty sure was a blind buy. Great choice on my part.
It’s an album of classic style metal, done with obvious influence from Black Sabbath and early thrash, but never veering too far into one sub genre. It’s straight up heavy rock and roll, without any irony of goofiness. And really really good too.
I like loud music. When people ask me what I like, I frequently just say that I like almost anything that can be made better by being played loudly. So in turn there’s a good deal of noise rock that I enjoy, along with weird, noisy experimental stuff. The thing is, you’ll rarely ever find a better environment for loud music than at a heavy metal show. A good heavy metal band is hard to find though, cause there’s so much niche fragmentation in the genre, and so much of it is kinda terrible. So when I find a metal act that I really like it’s always special for me.
Early Man fits the bill. On Closing In, their debut album they just have song after song of quality riffing, good rhythm, and kickass guitar.
The album opens with Four Walls, which is an absolute blast of an opener, setting the tone and style of things to come. It’s pretty much the sort of thing that makes you just want to headbang with a bunch of other like minded dudes. Have a few drinks and just rock the fuck out, mosh a bit, whatever you’re into.
While there’s not a a whole lot of sonic diversity on the record, it doesn’t really hamper the album, cause there’s enough stylistic diversity between the songs. I mean there’s the slower, chuggier songs like Death is the Answer, or Like a Goddamn Rat, which has a main verse riff that almost sounds like dance punk weirdly enough, to the straight heavy rocker Evil Is.
The lyrics are all mostly angry nonsense stuff, but singer Mike Conte does a good job half singing, half snarling. He never goes to deep into growling or pure screaming, so you can always understand what ominous stuff he’s going on about. I like his approach.
In closing, I really really like Closing In. I’ve been listening to it for years, and it has remained in my car listening rotation for quite a long time. It’s a great album full of solid hooks, heavy riffs, and plenty of rocking.
Shit’s quality is what I’m trying to say here. If you like like your Sabbaths black and your maidens made of iron, you’ll probably enjoy Early Man’s first record.