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Thirty eight minute song that falls prey to common tactics.-
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| US Christmas: The Valley Path |
Doom Metal, Progressive Psychadelic Rock, Stoner Rock
Neurot Recordings
May 31st, 2011
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| Review Information |
Release length: 38:50
Review posted on May 27th, 2011
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| | Overall Score: 7.5/10 |
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| Discography |
Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed. |
| Full-Length(s): |
US Christmas (2007) • Eat the Low Dogs (2008) • Run Thick in the Night (2010) • The Valley Path (2011)
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| Split(s): |
Harvestman, U.S. Christmas, Minsk: Hawkwind, Triac (2010)
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| Demo(s): |
Bad Heart Bull (2005) • Salt the Wound (2006)
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| Review |
U.S. Christmas, or USX as some refer to the group, is a Progressive Psychadelic Rock group that also incorporates some Blues into their material. The band hails from North Carolina and into eastern Tennessee and formed back in 2002. Eventually, the band found their way to Neurot Recordings, which, given their sound, is perhaps the most appropriate home for the group and their music, especially their follow up to their previous full-length effort Run Thick in the Night. That follow-up is a one song full-length recording entitled The Valley Path. Given the label's success, and the obvious members of Neurosis who run it and their musical legacy, it's hard to believe that this release won't live up to the expectations of fans wanting something a little more complex and interesting to their music, but long one song full-length recordings have never really done so well or have been as widely received by the Metal audience. So, the question with The Valley Path becomes whether or not this one song can hold the listeners attention and leave him or her happy after forty straight minutes.
First of all, the production of the recording is about what you would expect. The quality seems rather modern and digital, though it has a slight rawness to it that captures the more tribal vibe fo the drumming, giving the overall atmosphere of the song a rather ritualistic Southern vibe throughout the song despite how it changes. The vocals, however, come through pretty modern and clear without much of an echo effect outside the once in a while background vocal performance of female vocals, and what seems like the lead vocalist being echoed, but is a layer pushed far in the background that is low in the mix with a heavy distortion added.
The song starts off well enough by lasting a solid twelve minutes building on it's sludgier Psychadelic Rock sound. The Southern atmosphere to the song works well with the ritualistic/tribal atmosphere of the song, and it just continues to build from slower, ecclectic sounding music to a loud and more dominating vibe, though the general performance still has the same flow to it, and the vocals only sound richer due to the layering of vocals behind it. It all manages to keep the listener attentive with subtle enough changes that keep the song interesting before it just kind of stops and goes into some Ambient noises of digital effects for roughly two minutes, eating up some time before the music kicks back in a gradually shifts to a rich guitar solo and music that has a general idea of the start of the track's foundation, but does manage to sound somewhat different, enough that you could consider this track two of the release with that previous transition, though the solo does bring in a stronger emotion to the music, capturing the Blues vibe well of the band, and is very well done and suiting to the overall Psychadelic sound thanks to the distortion used and latter keyboards that kick in.
Around the time you hit the twenty minute mark, the music fades, and you're greeted with some more nature oriented Ambience coupled with some random guitar distortion in the background that sounds more metallic then anything. Eventually other effects other then crickets appear, such as birds, running water briefly, some keyboards appear momentarily, and the guitars kick in once more to usher in what sounds more like track three, being much different compared to the previous two tracks thanks to it's more Folk setting from the Ambience, though still moving at a slow pace, taking on more of a Doom Metal vibe with that Folk influence. Sadly this the progression of the entire track. The song actually feels more like it's somewhat around twenty minutes, as the end of the track that kicks in around the twenty eight mark clearly takes the song back to the sound of the start, and the rest just feels like random filler with varying instrumental pieces thrown in that could easily have made for some Ambient solo tracks for this recording, but instead are lumped together in one song.
But, is this really a bad thing? Honestly, while it's something that is a bit of a bother because the song itself feels made up as a collection of various other songs to pad out the length of "The Valley Path", it really isn't too bad. The main song at the start and end are actually quite mesmerizing, and the band does a good job at weaving a very psychadelic vibe to the music. The Southern atmosphere to the material works well during some of the more Blues driven emotional moments in the music, which really seems to only stem at times from the guitar solos that are performed, but it adds an extra layer to the music as a whole. The padding in the track itself really isn't too bad either, and tycally retains the general sound of the recording, though the more Folkish material that appears near dead center of the song becomes something that doesn't necessarily make the most sense of having consideringt he more Southern ritualistic and tribal sound of the song in the first place that gives off a rather dark tone.
For a song that's nearly forty minutes, there's much worse out there, and this lives up to your expectations as far as these long winded songs go. There's plenty of padding, but the music itself is actually very well done at times can mesmerize the listener. There's no doubt this band knows what they are doing, and The Valley Path does show a good amount of talent, which is something fans and critics have noticed with this band for quite some time now. If experimental music is up your alley, or laid back environments that can enchant you happens to be your thing, then it's well worth a shot, especially if you just happen to be looking for something a little different. U.S. Christmas may not leave you feeling like a kid on Christmas morning after a visit from Santa (yes I couldn't help but make that horrible pun), but in the end you'll feel satisfied by what the band gives you with The Valley Path.
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Digital review copy of this release provided by:
Neurot Recordings
via Earsplit PR.
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