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.

São Paulo Death Rock : Rakta

Ratka says they are not trying to attach themselves to any specific genre (peace-punk, anarcho, death rock, goth, post-punk) however the group's desert island picks in a 2014 cvltnation.com interview were intriguing enought that I was inspired to check out their music for myself.

Q: A question I ask all bands: If you all were stranded on a desert island, and somehow magically had the means to play records, but could only take 5 records with you, what would those 5 records be?

Natha: Big Boys records and definitely Ramones.

Laura: Hahaha, maybe Cólera Pela “Paz em Todo Mundo” LP, Crass’s 7’’ EP “Nagasaki Nightmare,” Gauze’s “Fuckheads” LP, Las Otras’ “Devolver el Golpe” LP, and Ras Michael and Sons of Negus LP. Nyahbinghi compilation.

Paula: This is so hard. Om, “Advaitic Songs“; Pedro Santos, “Krishnanda“; Spacemen 3, “Playing with Fire“; Dead Can Dance, “Spiritchaser“; Pink Floyd, “Live at Pompeii.”

Carla: Melody Nelson, Serge Gainsbourg. Universal Consciousness, Alice Coltrane. Ramones, Ramones. Black Ark in Dub, Lee Perry. Garlands, Cocteau Twins. Future Days, Can.

Ratka's music definitely reminds me of an '80s crust punk band slowed down with a delay pedal and extra reverb to a speed better suited for slow motion head banging in a cave.