You.May.Die.In.The.Desert - Bears in the Yukon (2006)

It must be the time of year, or maybe just the amount of metal and doom I listened to this year, but I get a certain melancholy, no, not melancholy...just a bittersweetness about everything...Maybe its the holiday season, maybe its just gearing up for the hibernation of the winter months. Maybe I am crazy. Nonetheless it adds up to me listening to a lot of introspective instrumental music and post rock...Maybe its because the first time I heard Mogwai back in 1997 it was in Burlington, VT and it was winter and I was there for a snowboard trip and a friend of mine said, "Dude, you gotta hear this new band!! They use a xylophone!!!" He was so psyched and it made me excited. Listening to Mogwai changed my life, at least musically speaking.

Well, enough digression. You.May.Die.In.The.Desert is not Mogwai, but Mogwai is what led me here. What led me to continuously search out post-rock and instrumental rock for the past 10 years. I have found some incredible life changing things and for the past few years there have been an abundance of like-minded bands achieveing powerful records and wowing audiences without using a single word. You.May.Die.In.The.Desert are not to be discounted on these points. They have the cathartic and epic quality of so many of their forefathers. What makes this release fun to me is the rhythmic and jazzy complexity that this band employs. You will notice it right off the bat from the first track. The use of echo and reverb is a great way to achieve repetition without painstakingly repeating everything, and also keeps the record from falling into that repetition trap which seems to overtake some of the less successful bands of this genre. After all, it takes alot more than repetition to capture and hypnotize a listener. The drums are seriously a standout as they pound away and make you want to nod your head in tribute...Just try not to toe-tap to this one. I dare you...

And like so many bands of today, they have no website and only have a Myspace page...I hate Myspace, but I kind of like it too. Either way, you will have to visit it to learn more and find out when the band is touring.