Second-to-second impressions of a first listen to The House of Capricorn's "In the Devil's Days"

"All Hail to the Netherworld": shouted vocals with tremolo picking: black metal Agnostic Front... now slowing down, sounds a bit NWOBHM almost with New Wave guitar strumming... now Celtic Frost riffing to close it out...? Nope. Starting to get too long... know when to end the song/piece, guys... sound's not evolving, really, just repeating... the refrain's not your friend if the melody's not that interesting...!

"Les Innocents:" a long time with a flatted fifth... it's Swans meets Black Sabbath, but not quite as cool as that sounds... like most doom bands, they don't know when to end... this spoken word over bass thing you're doing was cool for approximately five to ten seconds, just enough to say what you  need to say... now you're just belaboring it... at 3:31 it's worn out it's welcome-- get to it, you're pissing me off... lots of reverbed whispering. Big NO on this track.

"Coffins and Cloven Hooves": opens with mid-paced alt-pop strumming, but with radically-detuned riffs (in B). Very cool so far. Becomes New Wave-ish again with a chorus... almost Sisters Of Mercy-ish, and overall cool and funky... a bit of Isis here... overall, it grows on you. I'm humming this one. Favorite so far.

"Arcane Delve": opens boring, then at about 1:32 and its refrain of "Like a Lord of Flies"  like a very cool heavier Depeche Mode, or KMFDM or Swans. At 4:30 we get a middle-eastern riff version of Kirk Hammett's solos and a Morne-ful melody that actually quite moving, in the same way Chopin's Funeral Marche is....

"Canto IV": we start with lush strings, not unlike a 12-string, or a simple harp melody in Db minor that resolves to major and then becomes--

"Veils" with a monolithic riff, funeral progression, drums plod, but not in the good way... sounds like a drummer who's never quite found the pocket (and no, I don't care that this is, at this point, funeral doom-- you can still rub stank on it, à la Centurions Ghost)... overall forgettable....

"To Carry The Lantern": opens with toms and minor 9th chords (I think)... and doesn't particularly change over its nearly seven-minute running time....

"Illumination in Omega," while sounding cool in title, is really just a pop-punk, Ramones-y, Type O Negative castoff.... "Horns" and closer "In the Devil's Days," well, close things out.

Overall: not at all what I thought I was getting into: in its best moments, much more like the early-80s pop version of Ghost and Opus Eponymous....

...Sounds kinda cool, though, doesn't it? When it does in fact hit that mark-- very cool stuff.

--Horn

Principe Valiente - S/T

As my friends well know, I have a soft spot for late ‘70’s and ‘80’s rock, particularly the bands who first delved into the darker, more atmospheric soundscapes.  Joy Division led the way and could have owned the dark side of rock had it not been for a number of innovative bands such as Echo & The Bunnymen, The Chameleons (UK), Bauhaus, The Cure, The Sisters of Mercy and others who have expanded the genre with their own unique visions, songs and arrangements.

The ‘90’s zeitgeist moved away from these gloom artists to more overtly angry forms of Grunge and Hip Hop.  Brooding gave way to screaming and luridly vivid lyrical explorations of urban decay set to a more urgent set of beats.

Now in our post-9/11 world, music has taken a more introspective turn.  Bands such as Interpol  and more recently The Xx began returning to the shadowy underground sound with ruminations steeped in the legacy of the early masters of gloom rock.  Enter Sweden’s Principe Valiente, whose  eponymous debut mines this rich vein of rock with a new vitality.

Principe Valiente opens with “Intro”, a solo piano prelude awash in reverberation and building to a crescendo leading into “Before You Knew Me”, a spare and pounding track driven by the drums of Joakim Janthe and Fernando Honorato’s muscular and riffy bassline.  Honorato also provides the vocals in his darkly rich baritone.  Floating over the top is a spare yet melodic guitar line by Alexander Lehto.   The song’s relentless beat comes to a sudden close with several pitched and distorted snare hits

Principe Valiente’s ten tracks following the intro sound like one long track with few distinguishing features from track to track.  This may read as a negative but actually serves to deliver a cohesive album that holds together well during a full listening.  At times, Honorato’s voice, with the tone and delivery of Bauhaus-era Peter Murphy, soars above the din like a gothic angel filling a candlelit cathedral with passion.  The arrangements are strong, hooky and dynamic.

Standout tracks are “In My Arms”, (video linked here)which opens with a gorgeous pair of rhythm guitars panned wide left and right with a chiming lead guitar part dead center which pulls you right into the song as the verse kicks in, and “The Night”, (video linked here) sounding like a vintage Martin Hannett Factory Records production, complete with deep warehouse ambience and dominant lead bassline Peter Hook would approve of.

Despite wearing their collective influences on their sleeves, Principe Valiente delivers a solid album that manages to sound modern and yet echoes with the reverb generated back in Manchester all those years ago.  I look forward to hearing more from this band.

--Jones

http://principevaliente.com/


Principe Valiente - In My Arms from Principe Valiente on Vimeo.