Friday, January 8, 2010

Capsule- Blue

    Want to know what kind of music a sexually abused child who grew up listening to sped-up Castavet sounds like? Okay, so that might not be the best way to make this record sound appealing, but then again, the tortured breakneck introversions of Capsule aren’t for everyone. It’s a record both difficult to categorize, and at times, difficult to listen to. This is music from another, angrier planet, where song structure is not fully understood, and chords of an even remotely major variety are punishable by death.

    Most tracks go by in a furious blur of raucous guitars, and drums beaten within an inch of their lives, stopping and starting on a whim. There are hints of Sleepytime Trio screamo, metalcore, and experimental a la Blood Brothers at their loudest, with Fall of Troy stabbings. The lyrics are similarly incomprehensible, as mid-album monster “Determinal” amounts to the single line “Some chains intaken...Trust in weight to drag to heave no sky no witness”. Likewise, “Cobalt Connection” is comprised of the words “All hail next expurgator to frame his place over the fire so we shed/Transhumance /You left us slaves so we shed.” Transhumance?! Are you fucking kidding me? For those unaware, ‘transhumance’ is, according to Wikipedia, the seasonal movement of people with their livestock over relatively short distances, typically to higher pastures in summer and to lower valleys in winter. What this song has to do with animal herding is beyond anyone’s best guess. With or without looking up the words, you’ll be left scratching your head, as buried, screams-of-the-eternally-damned vocals are the status quo on Blue.

    The ten track assault of Blue is only broken by the slow, booby-trapped soundscape of “Title Track”, which lumbers along like an axe murderer in the obligatorily abandoned warehouse/metalshop, making way for their album closer “Going Home”, a twelve-minute behemoth which has every intention of grinding your bones to make its bread.

    Even after close analysis, I still cannot distinguish what is it about Blue that makes it so compelling. It seems that Capsule are trying their darndest to make this an unappealing, brutish mess, and yet it becomes somehow personal. It’s your mess. Like that closet you don’t want to clean, but can still find everything in. As mentioned, this is absolutely not a record that everyone will like, but it stands as an interesting experiment in left-of-center music that’s worth a heady listen.



Blue

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