My filthy pedigree.
This was originally part of my next review, but after thinking about it for a brief second, I (thankfully) came to the conclusion that the Internet (the portion of it that would come to read a review of a new album, anyway) really just couldn’t care less about what I listened to as a teenager/early twenty-something. Plus, it would have gone well over my self imposed 500 word limit for reviews. However, I’m posting it as a separate post because I felt it did bring up a good point as far as where I’m coming from when I’m writing my reviews.
The last time I went all total gooey schoolgirl over an album, it was last years Sunbather by Deafheaven. Before that, it was Empros by Russian Circles. Prior to that, A Determinism of Morality by Rosetta was my main jam. Previous to that, I was dead set on purchasing a pedal steel guitar because I loved Every Red Heart Shines Toward The Red Sun by Red Sparowes so damn much. That record is also where I learned to tolerate paragraphs for song titles.
It gets murky beyond that point, but I’m aware that I probably listened to Conqueror by Jesu on Last.fm, as well as Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven! by Godspeed You! Black Emperor on YouTube, way too much. And depending on what I was feeling at the moment, Isis’ Oceanic and The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place by Explosions in the Sky were constantly trading places in my CD player.
I didn’t discover a lot of these records as they were released, but somehow, by some strange miracle, that list is almost in chronological order. Almost. Regardless of how cool I was at 19 (spoiler alert: I wasn’t), what you may be noticing from this core sample of my adolescence into adulthood is that (with obvious exceptions) I tend to gravitate more toward the metal side of genres that find themselves with a “post” prefix.
So, now that we’ve cleared the air on that…
I’m currently writing a review for the album Mitau by the Latvian post-rock/metal band Audrey Fall. I didn’t think it’d be fair to write a review of Mitau without presenting some sort of full disclosure exposing my metal predispositions. But I’d also like to state that I love straight up post-rock to bits as well, and there is a lot of good newer post-rock coming out that is worth listening to. This is actually why I chose to review two decidedly non metal post-rock bands (Moonlit Sailor and Semblance) before taking a crack at something with more post-metal leanings, like Audrey Fall’s Mitau.
That said, I love the album. I’m giddy about it. Like, schoolgirl giddy.
You can find out exactly what about it makes me swoon by reading the review here.
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