Inevitably, no matter how much effort I put into listening to metal in a given year, I end up missing something.
2012 was a great year for metal, too. So that just made things more difficult as far as keeping track of all the great releases. I'll remember it for bands like Christian Mistress, Yakuza, Anhedonist, Pallbearer, Krallice, and Sigh. And that's only a portion of the releases I enjoyed!
As it turns out, Skarab is another band that belongs with those that I just named.
The Metal Archives lists Skarab as "avant-garde" metal. I find it to be an appropriate categorization, more so than "progressive". To me, progressive implies that the band is going from A-to-B in a song and the journey is an important part of it. Skarab's songs don't really do this; they start on the outside and tend to stay there. The album as a whole could be taken as a journey, though.
The band's Bandcamp page notes that the music is written by Tim Steffens (also of Klabautamann) and Skarab. That implies that Steffens brought in the basic ideas that were then fleshed out into the songs you hear by he and the other three members.
Christian Kolf is on vocals only for this release. The rhythm section is comprised of two gentlemen who had recently joined the Zeitgeister collective; Skarab is their first release.
Obviously, given that Steffens and Kolf are working together here, the expectation would be that the effort of a great songwriter is complemented by that of another.
After opening track "Heat" (which not coincidentally guaranteed that I'd buy this eventually), though, it may take a few listens for the listener to be receptive to the album's charms.
To my ears, the best songs reside after "Body of a Graveyard", which itself is the album's least entertaining track. The other nine do more than enough to make up for that. You've got the double-bass flurries in "The Rabbi of Weeds", syncopated riffing of "Stone Torches", and intricate arpeggios and density of "I Am the Winding Stair". Then "Unarmed Sailor" closes the record as strongly as "Heat" opened it.
Kolf's performance is notable, given that he's not playing guitar. His clean vocals sit at or near the center of each track. "You wish, you pray", he intones in "Sunset", providing one of the album's most sublime moments as Steffens plays some hefty chords and a second guitar adds a melody over top. This is a trick that is utilized fairly well throughout the album: Steffens has rhythm tracks that are augmented by melodic counterparts, sometimes slow and plaintive and others tremelo-picked to add a bit more spice.
Really, there's so much more that could be said, but it is in listening that one will find the greatest reward. Skarab is the product of great songwriters, a well-executed slice of avant-garde metal that does not go so far as to alienate, but satisfies with the strength of its positioning outside of the norm.
2012 was a great year for metal, too. So that just made things more difficult as far as keeping track of all the great releases. I'll remember it for bands like Christian Mistress, Yakuza, Anhedonist, Pallbearer, Krallice, and Sigh. And that's only a portion of the releases I enjoyed!
As it turns out, Skarab is another band that belongs with those that I just named.
The Metal Archives lists Skarab as "avant-garde" metal. I find it to be an appropriate categorization, more so than "progressive". To me, progressive implies that the band is going from A-to-B in a song and the journey is an important part of it. Skarab's songs don't really do this; they start on the outside and tend to stay there. The album as a whole could be taken as a journey, though.
The band's Bandcamp page notes that the music is written by Tim Steffens (also of Klabautamann) and Skarab. That implies that Steffens brought in the basic ideas that were then fleshed out into the songs you hear by he and the other three members.
Christian Kolf is on vocals only for this release. The rhythm section is comprised of two gentlemen who had recently joined the Zeitgeister collective; Skarab is their first release.
Obviously, given that Steffens and Kolf are working together here, the expectation would be that the effort of a great songwriter is complemented by that of another.
After opening track "Heat" (which not coincidentally guaranteed that I'd buy this eventually), though, it may take a few listens for the listener to be receptive to the album's charms.
To my ears, the best songs reside after "Body of a Graveyard", which itself is the album's least entertaining track. The other nine do more than enough to make up for that. You've got the double-bass flurries in "The Rabbi of Weeds", syncopated riffing of "Stone Torches", and intricate arpeggios and density of "I Am the Winding Stair". Then "Unarmed Sailor" closes the record as strongly as "Heat" opened it.
Kolf's performance is notable, given that he's not playing guitar. His clean vocals sit at or near the center of each track. "You wish, you pray", he intones in "Sunset", providing one of the album's most sublime moments as Steffens plays some hefty chords and a second guitar adds a melody over top. This is a trick that is utilized fairly well throughout the album: Steffens has rhythm tracks that are augmented by melodic counterparts, sometimes slow and plaintive and others tremelo-picked to add a bit more spice.
Really, there's so much more that could be said, but it is in listening that one will find the greatest reward. Skarab is the product of great songwriters, a well-executed slice of avant-garde metal that does not go so far as to alienate, but satisfies with the strength of its positioning outside of the norm.
