Shai Hulud "A Comprehensive Retrospective Or: How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Release Bad and Useless Recordings" CD
[Revelation]
Fact: Shai Hulud is one of the greatest bands ever to have walked the planet. I know a lot of people disagree with me on that one, but there are a lot of idiotic people in this world, therefore I don't care. Everything these guys released in their time was impeccable, warts and all - the music, the lyrics, the performances... everything. I don't give a fuck what anyone says, Shai Hulud shits all over most bands and they'll continue to shit all over most bands for the remainder of life's existence, because let's face it... there just aren't that many bands out there who really possess that special genuine something that just can't be replicated. They'd have been just as well off calling this thing "A Comprehensive Retrospective Or: How 10 Years After the Fact Our First Demo Still Outshines the Vast Majority of What's Out There These Days", but they're way too modest for that, so... Included herein is the band's 1995 demo with original vocalist Damien Moyal (perhaps better known for his work with Culture, Morning Again, and As Friends Rust), as well as live tracks, a rare warehouse practice, second vocalist Chad Gilbert's first 4-track demo with the band in 1996, and scratch rhythm guitar tracks from some early and unreleased material. Is it all essential material? Hell no. But, the 1995 demo is absolutely fucking awesome, and considering the damn thing's 10 years old at this point, that really says something. The recording is pretty god damn competent for a decade-old demo (it sounds better than most demos that I get for review to this day), and despite minor performance flaws here and there it's played tightly with a lot of energy. Moyal's screaming sounds almost identical to every other vocalist the band secured after the fact, but his lyrics were quite different (though many remained intact for later versions of the songs), and the song structures are what will make things the most interesting for longtime fans of the band. For instance, few of the songs remained entirely the same from the demo to later releases, and it's interesting to pick out riffs from unreleased tracks like "Orwell" or "Unlearned" that turned up later on in tracks from "Hearts Once Nourished With Hope and Compassion", while "Sauve Qui Peut" and "Favor" were significantly spiced up and given a new titles altogether in their later days (despite remaining fairly similar to their roots in this form). The three live tracks were recorded at NYU on the Crucial Chaos radio show and include a cover of S.F.A.'s "Gyroscope". The recording is a little muffled, as would be expected, but for a live performance it's very listenable and the guitar tone is damn heavy, so it's a good listen. From that point on, though... things do get pretty damn raw. The 1995 warehouse practice predates the band's first demo and definitely sounds rough as fuck. The mix is mostly drums and vocals, so it's not a smooth listen, but you can sort of get the idea of what's going on. After that it's a rough 4-track demo of "This Wake I Myself Have Stirred" with just guitars and some percussive banging in the background (not actual drums). The guitars were recorded direct, so of course the sound is really fuzzed out and unnatural, which is annoying, but it's mildly interesting to hear the riffs as standalones like that. Chad's first demo with the band was laid down on a 4-track in 1996 and actually sounds worse than the 1995 warehouse practice, with a really muffled sound and lots of whooshing tape hiss or whatever. Go figure. Also rugged but very interesting are the scratch tracks for some of the early songs, consisting solely of one rhythm guitar recorded via microphone, so you get not only the slightly distant amp distortion but a lot of picking noise and clean sound from the close proximity of the guitar to the mic. Which sounds like it would be shitty, but it actually makes things clearer and more intriguing to listen to because some of the riffs sound a lot different, or at least more detailed, in this stripped down manner - so it really shows how complex some of the band's layering can get when you think about it. Included amongst these versions are "Unlearned", "100 Acre Wood" (never released), "Tree" (the original title for "Hardly"), "This Wake I Myself Have Stirred", and "Sauve Qui Peut". As for everything else? The layout? Well, I'll be blunt: The cover art sucks and I have no idea why they'd choose to make the thing look that way other than to be funny (Maybe?), but everything else is good to go. The innards are all in black and white and collage tons of photos and flyers (including many with the band name misspelled, which always seemed to be quite common) with a shitload of awesome liner notes that range from truly heartfelt and overly modest to rather hilarious and self-deprecating. The original lyrics are included for the first demo, and the content was a little more socio-politically pointed at that time (though not entirely), so I'm not really as floored by the songs as I have been by all of the band's work since. All of the liner notes are really detailed though, and I think that overall the documentation of this stuff has been painstakingly handled. The huge booklet really was an enjoyable read for me. The bottom line here is that, while true, some of this stuff sounds like shit and serves little purpose, the first nine songs/26 minutes alone are worth the $10 in my opinion, and any fan of the band that doubles as a musician will probably find the 15 minutes of scratch tracks worth a spin as well. I guess some of they key members of Shai Hulud are doing a band called The Warmth of Red Blood now, so... all I can do is wait my ass off for something to come of that, which is no easy task! Seriously I fucking love this band. (8/10)
Running time - 65:39, Tracks: 24
[Notable tracks: the 1995 demo rules, the live at NYU tracks are solid, and the scratch tracks are a nice little bonus]
Revelation Records - http://www.revelationrecords.com

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