Grand Ulena - Gateway to Dignity
(Family Vineyard)
Last August, an intrepid music journalist penned an article in the San Francisco Guardian chronicling the music movement known as "Brutal Prog," a classification coined by Weasel Walter of the Flying Luttenbachers. The article attempted to depict a series of bands whose music was linked by not only complexity and intricacy, but also power and intensity. Some of the groups mentioned fit the bill, like the Luttenbachers and Orthrelm. But, the others didn't really fit, for one reason or another, something author Will York readily admitted. Upsilon Acrux, as great as they are, never really get too brutal, and Hella only flirts with the brutality fleetingly. Touchdown are, sometimes, neither all that brutal nor staggeringly complex. So where can the line be drawn to continue the brutal prog lineage, as worthless as such categorizing may be? Enter Grand Ulena. Former Dazzling Killmen bassist and man-about-Chicago Darin Gray leads the St. Louis trio, which is rounded out by Danny McClain on drums and Chris Trull on guitar. Gateway to Dignity, a debut long in the making, is a mind-rattling forty-minute trip through music that's not quite the jaw-dropping 100% riffage of Orthrelm, but no less complex. Grand Ulena have the ninety-degree turns, double bass, and (to a degree) guitar shredding that the aforementioned duo are known for, but utilize it differently, a band whose strength is not only in their speed and accuracy, but in their compositional sense. Gray's thunderous, elastic bass lines are the meat in the intricate stew, whether he's playing in unison with Trull's gravelly, jangly guitar or rumbling underneath the music. Trull's thick guitar spends equal time in the throes of twisted riffs and a sea of distorted slide work that moves like waves of lumpy gravy. McClain drums like a wild man, punctuating the proceedings with furious fills, flys across his toms, and unleashes unhealthy barrages of blast beats. Grand Ulena's songs writhe and twitch in seizures of convoluted complexity, then seemingly dissolve, but only briefly before the supposed chaos becomes its own song form or the group lifts off in another direction. Gateway to Dignity is not without melody, sheer noise, or wall-of-sound constructions, but Grand Ulena are never in one place long enough for any descriptor to stick, and even to codify a segment of one of their compositions is often a futile task. The group are masters of surprise, slowing the tempo until just after the listener relaxes, then blasting off at an even faster rate than before, or repeating a phrase long enough that it just begins to become familiar, then jettisoning it for a new direction. And all of the things Grand Ulena do, they do with a distinct rock approach; never is the music without energy, and rarely does it even begin to become solely academic. Gateway to Dignity is a sweat-soaked mind-bend, a rare amalgam of ground-shaking energy and brow-furrowing complexity, and gee golly, it's damn fun. It only gets an 11 because Grand Ulena will undoubtedly find a way to up the ante again, though I can't fathom how. This is on level with the Luttenbachers' most recent release, and, if you know me, you know that's saying something. I'm now going to go wallow in shallow self-pity as I think about how the purported Flying Luttenbachers/Orthrelm/Grand Ulena tour never materialized. Alas, woe is me.
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