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Various Artists: Falling Down Compilation II
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Falling Down 2CD
 Falling Down is a web zine run by two French students and it seems to focus on heavy music somewhere around metal including sludge, post-metal, stoner, doom and also experimental ambient music. This double CD that was released in limited edition of thousand copies is their second compilation and includes 26 mostly previously unreleased tracks by rather uderground artists. I was already familiar with just the USA-based, psychedelic space rock bands White Hills (whose psych rocking “Heads on Fire” is worth the album’s price on its own), Farflung (their really great space rock track “R-Complex” can also be found on the deluxe and 2LP version of their latest album) and U.S. Christmas, the kings of Italian heavy, psychedelic, experimental and gloomy stoner metal Ufomammut (whose unreleased “Astrodronaut” is mostly experimental drone) and the excellent Irish post rock group God Is an Astronaut. I had previously heard the names of some of the other bands too, but this album still mostly has stuff that is totally new to me which of course is very interesting. I do have to mention that the bands that I already knew do sound the best, though.
There are very many heavy metal/doom/post metal numbers in here and many of them include growling vocals. The overall mood is gloomy and dark and many of the tracks are also slow. The last number “Dawn on Slugs” by Mumakli is ultra fast grindcore, though, which isn’t actually my thing. There is also some more technical and even progressive stuff in there like The Ocean and Impure Wilhelmina. The closest thing to classic 70’s/80’s heavy metal is “La Main Electrique” by Ocoia, I guess. There are some atmospheric pieces placed in the middle in a nice way not to make things too heavy and extreme. One of the best bands that I didn’t know before is Tesa from Latvia and their heavy and gloomy instrumental “Untitled” also includes some moodier post-metal elements. Another great, heavy but atmospheric track is for example “Nyx” by When Icarus Falls. I of course think that there could have been more psychedelic material included, but the massively heavy guitar sounds of Omega Massif for example do make your head buzz just nicely… This album can be recommended to all those like heavy, a bit experimental music and want to find out about new, rising bands. The guys at Falling Down have done an excellent job in putting this very varied compilation together and the compilation’s covers and booklet (with all the text in French, unfortunately) are well suited for the pretty dark atmosphere of the music.
www.myspace.com/fallingdowncompilation |
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