Eight Bells : Stronger than Steel

A potent three piece band is a thing of beauty. Each member owns a huge and powerful piece of the audio real estate. This set up allows each member's playing technique and style to shine through. They can be as dense or as minimal in their attack of the song as they see fit but whatever the choice, all three sides of the triangle offer a necessary side to the structure.

Eight Bells approach heavy music as an atmospheric chorus soaked in fuzz and delay, They lead me to believe that if Lemmy had remained in Hawkwind, this is perhaps what we could have expected. Their atmospheric dirge is illuminated by two voices that together paint a dramatic landscape filled with contrast and beauty.

Landless is the second album from this Portland, OR trio featuring Melynda Jackson formerly of SubArachnoid Space, Haley Westeiner, and Ray Amitay of Immortal Bird. I was recently introduced to the band as one of the openers on the current Voivod tour; another metal band that expands the boundary of what defines heavy music through experimentation. Silk is composed of a prism like fibers that comes across as reflective, sleek, and flexible yet it is also the strongest of all the natural fabrics. Pound for pound when the threads are weaved together, it is stronger than steel. This is the music of Eight Bells, exactly.

 

Here is a live video of the band from the show I saw at Strange Matter in Richmond, VA.