Vermilion - Flattening Mountains and Creating Empires
(Redwood)
Flattening Mountains and Creating Empires is one of those records that artistically looks out of place as a new release. Sure, there's a sort of late 60s/early 70s burn to the album's Roger Dean-painted cover, making me feel like the disc is going to sound like Emerson, Lake and Palmer's Tarkus or something. Instead, the album is a bit of a headfirst plunge into art rock/prog rock/math rock pool. The results are mostly good. There's a lot going on with this disc, from frantic guitar grinds, downright beautiful violin work, and an assortment of all sorts of other interesting sounds. It definitely makes for a pleasant listen.
Starting off with an introductory four minutes that would have fit right in on June of 44's Engine Takes to the Water, "Frequent Universal Creations Keep Sound Eternally and Thoroughly Tasting Like Energy" has the nicely off-kilter angular guitar work down that demonstrates that this is a band that really knows what they're doing. Despite having built up this wonderful atmosphere and tone, Bryce Shoemaker's screamed vocals come in and bring the whole affair crashing in on their head. This criticism comes not from the mere use of vocals, but rather from the format and method used for the vocals in this song that don't match up and really take the listener out of the mood. Contrasting like night and day, the slow piano/violin sounds that open "Pachydermus" are quite elegant and downright beautiful. Over time the rest of the band joins in, bringing the more traditional rock instruments into play while retaining the violin. This Rachel's-esque piece continues along for a while until there is the sudden jolt from a guitar riff worthy of Steve Vai. This ushers in a much more aggressive and harder sound, a definite juxtaposition from the early segments of the track. The switch is handled nicely and works well. "1313101310137107" is a loud guitar rocker for the most part, with several flourishes that would make the Storm and Stress proud, especially if they were to have a bastard child with Gastr del Sol. "Amplexus" closes the album in a nice and moderately calm fashion.
This record isn't one that will change your life, but it is definitely pretty enjoyable once the later part of the first track has come and gone. With everything that the band is working at musically showing so much promise, there's no reason for these guys to have to dissolve into such a cacophonous disaster as the vocal portion of that song. It actually is that terrible and distracting. It is quite clear from the rest of the record that the band is able of laying down some high quality tunes that rock from start to finish. Vermilion are definitely a band with promise.
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