Ashes Are Nutritious and The Canvas Waiting…

3.15.2007

Ashes Are Nutritious - Frustration + On "Frustration +", their first full-length outing, New Jersey's Ashes Are Nutritious cranks out a strange amalgam of sort of post- sort of prog- rock/hardcore/metal that falls somewhere along the lines of Tool meets Glassjaw meets Alien Ant Farm meets a non-obnoxious System of a Down. The unusual—though generally tasteful—vocal delivery definitely plays a significant role in the parallels drawn to all of the aforementioned acts, but musically there's a lot of uncommon ground covered as well—especially considering that many of the tracks are but a mere three minutes or less, granted some do reach towards the seven-minute range (and then there's the massive 20-minute closing jam, "Siafu"). I'm not entirely sold on every ounce of it, but there are tons of bizarre twists and mangled rhythms—from dense yet melodic chord progressions and heavier straightforward rhythmic grooves to winding, meandering dissonant riffs and gratingly noisy guitar textures. The rather energetic drumming tends to run all over the place, perhaps following the path of the hammering basslines, so I really dig the work of the rhythm section here. The bassist is a fuckin' nut, that's for sure. Great bass tone/presence, too. I don't know, like I said, I'm not entirely sold on every single aspect of the record, but there's a lot of cool shit going on, and it's definitely curious/promising, so I'll be interested to see what the future holds for these cats. Not bad.

Ashes Are Nutritious "Protrusion of Truth"
Ashes Are Nutritious "G.P.D."

Support the band and make the grab if you're intrigued:

The Canvas Waiting - In Search of Beginnings... "In Search of Beginnings..." is the fairly promising seven-song debut EP from The Canvas Waiting. Originally released in 2005, this 2006 repress includes some acoustic demo tracks as a bonus, totaling 11 songs in a surprisingly meaty 50-minute running time. I'd basically describe the core of the material as relatively standard emo/indie rock with somewhat of a "mainstream" or "alternative" edge to it—basically meaning that it sounds super polished in terms of the production values and the overall delivery of the performances. In many ways the band's softer and more restrained side dominates with a lush blend of droning lead lines and brighter clean runs accompanied by some strong vocal arrangements—only occasionally putting forth harder hitting midpaced rhythms that never get particularly "heavy" per se. So I'd definitely prefer to hear a little more distortion and energy to pick up the pace and add additional contrast to the compositions, as the generally laidback nature of the songwriting lacks some of the emphatic catchiness that I tend to look for within this niche. As mentioned, the recording is pretty damn crisp and clean, so I've got no complaints there, though my one suggestion (playing into what I said about contrast) would be to kick the distortion up a bit to thicken up the more rocked out guitar parts. I'm not blown away, but there are definitely numerous characteristics of this EP that possess a level of quality that suggests greater capabilities to be revealed in time. The title track is seven minutes long, which is perhaps a bit much, so if they trim the fat and push to maximize their strengths by amping up those energy levels, they'll get there...

The Canvas Waiting "Carousel Ride"

If you dig the track, pick one up, and look out for more:

Comments

Yeah man. I’m likin what I hear from both bands.

3.15.2007 | By Adrianoso
Ashes stuff sounds good- I’ll have to check them out further.

3.21.2007 | By sk@k