Four Quick Reviews!

INTRONAUT – Valley of Smoke (Century Media): Intronaut. Juggernaut. Argonaut. The latter might be the most telling in describing Valley of Smoke, as it is closer to a musical octopus than anything else I’ve heard since the last BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME record. The prog metal outfit really cranks up the creativity and continuity on here, beautifully constructing 50 flowing minutes of chugs, churns, intros, outros, and sung and shouted vocals. If INTRONAUT weren’t awesome at doing this, they’d be on par with a college town jam band with heaps of double-bass, but that’s not the case, and Valley of Smoke is an immersion, breakaway experience.

COKE BUST – Lines In The Sand (Six Weeks Records – CD reissue with 16 bonus tracks): … and in the opposite corner is COKE BUST, who obliterate 31 minutes of time with 33 songs of instant sonic chaos. Don’t look around for complicated song structures, as they don’t exist on here, it’s just play it loud, play it fast, and don’t forget to include a bunch of mouthy, caustic vocals. Lost in the noise is the fact that COKE BUST back their music with smart and serious lyrics, which are thankfully included in the detailed, classy insert. Good for a few listens, but the super short songs take this into novelty terrain.

WHERE THE OCEAN MEETS THE SKY – Empires (CI Records): CI Records has been ahead of the curve for a number of years now in their signings and they struck it big time with an early EP from AUGUST BURNS RED. That might happen again with WTOMTS, a band whose melodic, electronically addled take on metalcore snuggles up nicely with the Rise Records crew and Equal Vision’s WE CAME AS ROMANS. The clean vocals remind me of THE RECEIVING END OF SIRENS, and occasionally the guitars break into some solid, warm sounding atmospheric stuff instead of just hyper-riffing the band’s songwriting into the ground. Standout song is “Victims,” which pushes with more urgency than the rest.

TIM KASHER – The Game of Monogamy (Saddle Creek): The Game of Monogamy may have another meaning if the success of Tim Kasher’s debut solo full-length turns out to be a lethal blow to the vital signs of CURSIVE. And I think I’m cool with that, especially if it leads to more of Kasher’s gorgeous blend of orchestral pop and smooth rolling indie rock (moody trumpet included). Confident sounding and free from CURSIVE’s occasional battle with overwrought, clunky instrumentation, Kasher bounces around on here with a youthful glee, even while burying himself in difficult personal topics and battles. Let’s not make this one a prerequisite for getting a marriage license.