Iceburn - Hephaestus (1994)
With Hephaestus (named after the Greek blacksmith god) Iceburn sent the whole hardcore world on its side. The density and scope of this album is huge. Broken into four parts, Iron, Brick, Flyswatter and Blacksmith and then broken down again into segments, or movements, the album plays as one long 78 minute track. It is hard to describe the thunderous sounds layed forth, but the song titles are a good description of some of the sounds you will come across. Heavy and complicated, the trio winds its way through crunching hardcore heaviness and avant-garde sound experiments and throws in a bunch of jazz like passages and atonal, off-meter rhythmic complexity. It all adds up to being a very ambitious idea. One which plays out perfectly and one which the band has tried to top on consecutive releases. I personally feel that this release is their magnum opus and combines their earlier hardcore leanings with their experimental tendencies.
"Defined: Iceburn - perhaps the most amazing band in the universe. In a sentence: Iceburn is the most punk band who doesn't play anything resembling punk music. Iceburn." Aiding and Abetting Fanzine
posted by blend77 at 6:40 PM
7 Comments:
Man I havent listened to this in like 6 years. Forgot how good it was too.
What's next, Engine Kid? Kinda hard to think that the singer is mister Goatsnake now.
Indeed, seeing Cache all grown up in Rival Schools made me feel old.
Them early more than music fests were pretty fun too.
i was just listening to it the other day and i thought about how few people had actually heard them and how even fewer actually liked them. haha! i always thought this was a great album, though Firon was a good one. dunno if i could "do the deed" to it, though i used to know a girl who liked having sex to death metal. man to be that young again.
@ apt13
i listened to that soul control stuff, and it is something that i wont be putting into rotation anytime soon. haha! a little out there...but Anne Dreud is an awesome song, and I will be playing that one...
This stuff is great, thanks. I had never heard of Iceburn before except in a comparison to one of my favourite bands ever, the original heavy CRAW (get all of their music free off their site www.craw.com)...I do hear the resemblance, particular in some of the vocal tone and ramblings and noodly guitar jams, though Craw is less restrained altogether. Very neat.
oh man, i love craw....awesome....thanks for the comment.
I saw Gentry (just him) play in a tinnny little
shack in SLC once, years ago. It was very loud
and mind-blowing.
Amazing stuff! Do you have their version of Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring"
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