Search - Red Sparowes :: At the Soundless Dawn

Album of the Year

Lee L. | Washington DC | 02/22/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am absolutely stunned by this album.



If you like bands like Isis, Neurosis, Pelican, etc., you're going to like this band. However, the real treat here is for people like myself that really love bands like Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, and Godspeed, but still like the above metal bands.



The best way to describe this album is to take the heaviness of bands like Isis and cross it with the songwriting structures and sensibilities of a band like Explosions in the Sky. The result is an epic album of instrumental, soaring post post post rock/post hardcore.



I think over time this album may find its way into my top fifty favorite albums ever. I can't imagine a better album coming out this year. Best of the genre."

The Landscape was Transformed in Front of Our Eyes.

Sunshine the Werewolf | Canada | 01/26/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"RED SPAROWES - At the Soundless Dawn

-

Call it Post-Rock, Call it Instru-Metal, or just call it a satisfying aural experience. Regardless of what you'd like to classify this CD as I call it amazing...

I listen to stuff like: GYBE, Pelican, Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai and the like... Basically out of those bands my biggest complaint is they seem too pretentious. (Well not so much Pelican, they are also amazing...) Red Sparowes, in addition to having their own sound, are also very creative, just look at the song titles... They are able to convey their albums message through a paragraph broken into 7 song titles:

Alone and Unaware, the Landscape was transformed in Front of Our Eyes, Buildings Began to Stretch Wide Across the Sky, and the Air Filled with a Reddish Glow, The Soundless Dawn Came Alive as Cities Began to Mark the Horizon, Mechanical Sounds Cascaded Though the City Walls and Everyone Reveled in Their Ignorance, A Brief Moment of Clarity Broke Through the Deafening Hum, but it was too Late, Our Happiest Days Slowly Began to Turn into Dust, The Sixth Extinction Crept Up Slowly, Like Sunlight Through the Shutters, as We Looked Back in Regret.

-One word: Genius.

Musically they are incredible... not only in the talent department but in their ability to flow gracefully through each song and into the next.

I know they may not really be bringing anything `new' to the table. Then again there is nothing wrong with mastering an `art' even if you didn't create it. Also remember this is their debut, they only have good things to look forward to.

(For fans of Isis, Neurosis, or the bands mentioned above.)

-4.75 Stars.





IF YOU LIKED, AGREED, OR APPRECIATED THIS PLEASE CLICK YES FOR:

"Was this review helpful?"

"

Shimmering and beautiful

Charles Comer | Baltimore, Maryland | 08/24/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Reminiscent of both the 4ad instrumental outfit dif juz and mogwai, red sparowes, nonetheless, have a sound all their own--one which would seem to deny any categorization as such, most of all the catch all "metal", of which they are certainly not, despite the members associations in various bands. While there are a good many instumental bands that sound merely like music sans lyrics, red sparowes create soundscapes of intricate beauty, in a way that pulls you into a world as opposed to simply adding a soundtrack to this one. In other words, the music is enough, lyrics would simply seem gratuitous, superfluous, and overkill. The album contains seven tracks, but it would be wrong to call them songs. They are really pieces containing several vignettes, small works unto themselves, that evoke a spectrum of dreamy moodiness, agitated torpor, and utter wonder. In the context that the tracks appear to follow a poem--the song titles of which comprise this poem--gives this album an additional boost of artistic flavor. And while somewhat dark in tone, there is something joyful about this album. When it's over you will feel elated and edified, and ready for another go."