APHORISMS

Red Sparowes are back, and rockin' harder than ever! Aphorisms will kick you in the rear right from the beginning. These three songs may contain more energy than their first two full-length records combined! Besides having more energy, the band continues to develop their unique sound with new ideas scattered throughout the complex arrangements. The songs are extra dynamic and memorable as a result of those two things, and we see some excellent climaxes, most notably the one in the middle of the first track, but the songs are still far from predictable. The band runs the gamut of sounds and beats on this one to great sucess. I don't have much else to say. This is a very strong EP, and it reminds us that Red Sparowes will remain a key name in post-rock in the years to come. Hopefully we won't have to wait much longer for their next output, though I think fans will be content with these songs for a while.

I never really got into this band, I only have at the soundless dawn, and only listened to it three or four times, simply because it bored me. The sound of the post rock/metal super group Red Sparrows sounds like the ambient sections of Isis, with some steal guitar thrown in, along with some Mogwai-ish metal sections, and in the midst of all this I have trouble finding anything to cling onto to take me away so I can get lost in the music like how I usually listen to the music of this genre.

This EP does provide some hope though, the first song, which I wont even try to write out considering how long and pretentious the title is, is an excellent heavy post rock song, full of a more tangible feeling that I can grip without losing focus, and not a lot of meandering to keep me locked in. It just has the energy that their debut just doesn't seem to have. The next song also has this kind of energy, but will through section to section, never really climaxing, maybe until the very end when the distorted delay starts playing a very dark lead, while the drums pound away, otherwise, it seems like this group is just going through the motions. One thing I should probably mention about this group is their wonderful use of the lap Steele guitar, an instrument widely unknown to this kind of music (maybe except Cult of Luna's guitar player using a slide). Anyways, they take full advantage of the instrument in the last song of this short EP, and with adding some western like tones to the other guitars, the song really does have a hugely prominent western feel, which I think is excellent.

Maybe this band is actually gonna start getting somewhere, this little EP does show some bite, some kind of agression behind their walls of delayed guitars, and if this collection of songs is to be on their new album, I wont deny my excitement for it.

3 stars