Search - Rosetta :: The Galilean Satellites

Imagine a collision between Explosions In The Sky and Coales

Aquarius Records | San Francisco | 04/30/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It always amazes me, when everyone starts digging a certain kind of music, that there can suddenly be millions of bands that just start coming out of the woodwork, who play -that- sort of music, really well. It's perplexing. It's too far fetched to think that there are a multitude of bands, great players, super creative, just waiting in the wings for someone to decree what the NOW SOUND is, at which point these bands immediately leap into action crafting exactly the sort of music people suddenly want to hear. I may be a cranky old jaded music nerd, but even I'm not that cynical. I'd like to think the process is much more organic, an outgrowth of the massive interconnnectedness of the underground, the sharing of ideas, the discovering of new sounds via the music of ones peers. How else to explain the seemingly endless torrent of math rock / post rock / sludge metal hybrids I've been seeing lately. I'm not complaining, I love it! And so far, for the most part, for a scene based on similar influences and execution, the results have been quite varied and really f-cking awesome. A quick off the top of my head list reads like a who's who of my favorites: Tides, Minsk, Isis, The Ocean, Indian, Warhammer 48K, Akimbo, Baroness, Pelican, Cult Of Luna, Conifer, Mouth Of The Architect and I could go on and on.



So what's a band got to do now to really stand out in a pretty overcrowded field? The answer lies right here, this mind blowing double disc debut from this Philadelphia crew.



The Galilean Satellites is some sort of concept record (no lyrics, only the cryptic line: "These songs are about a space man") and sprawls grandly over two discs, taking all the elements I love about the above mentioned bands, and pushes each of those elements to their very limit. Imagine a collision between Explosions In The Sky and Coalesce, and you'll understand just the framework, a starting point, from there, Rosetta build and build, stretching skyward, fingers brushing the heavens, their sound so massive and expansive it's hard to even begin to describe The Galilean Satellites. If you like any of the above mentioned bands, if you like that sound, then this is the next logical step.



Heavy parts are heavier, the ambient parts are more dense and fully fleshed out, lasting minutes instead of seconds, as critical to the mood and the journey as any riff or hook, not just a by rote method of building dynamics. The sound is HUGE, hypnotic and loping, slow melancholic grooves that give way to planet crushing heaviness, each track drenched in swirls of electronic whir and thick swaths of ambient color. Riffs are not just distorted and loud, they grind and churn, tuned low, sludgy and punishing, slithering and squirming, like they're alive and intend to do you harm. The vocals are throaty and howled, dripping with anguish, very reminscent of Coalesce's Sean Ingram.



But it's the color and subtleties that really make these discs totally unique. Sheets of clear ringing guitars (almost Edge like) will soar majestically over a prickly framework of ultra skittery jazz drumming (the drummer is incredible) before slipping into glacial sludge. If Isis are the masters of thinking man's metal, then Rosetta are their precocious little brothers, determinedly striving to outdo their more famous siblings, and in many ways succeeding. This is the sort of music, much like drone music, that benefits from being allowed to stretch out, two minutes is fine, but twelve minutes is better, allowing for the song to grow and change and stretch and morph organically.



Disc one is definitely the core, a dense raging avant post metal juggernaut, whereas disc two is more contemplative, more abstract and ambient, but no less heavy. The guitars are still present, but here they have crumbled into rough washes of buzz and whir, clear ringing melodies drifting above like black smoke from burning cities, the whole disc a dense melancholic drift, a series of soul stirringly creepy soundscapes, at the same time impossibly lovely and moving. Some sort of post metal abstract ambience that acts as the perfect emotional foil to the first disc's furious pummel. Utterly and absolutely essential.



Beautifully packaged with gorgeous metallic cover art by Aaron Turner of Isis/Hydra Head."

A masterpiece that pushes the genre forward

The Dilettante | 08/04/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am coming to expect good things from Pennsylvania's Translation Loss Records, but this record absolutely FLOORED me! Expect slow, austere, melodic bass and guitar picking that builds over several minutes into a clean and symmetrical ediface. When the inevitable tipping point is reached, this architecture collapses in cascades of power chords and screaming. And when the storm has passed, even the wreckage evaporates into brooding astral ambience.



Rosetta flirts with the avant garde, but never loses its groove. All of the players are strong and innovative musicians, but they completely resist the temptation to indulge in baroque soloing or abstract "math-metal" chaos. Instead, expect a solid foundation of subtle (but very catchy) hooks. I have had the whole album stuck in my head for 3 weeks now.



TGS changes pace precisely at its midpoint. The first disk is about 80% vocal-driven hardcore and 20% spacey ambience; the second disk reverses this ratio. I find myself listening to the first disk about twice as often as the second, but the second disk is not exactly "filler" either. Disk 2 is the perfect soundtrack to chilling out with headphones and your own melancholy. I just happen to do a lot more driving and jogging than passive suicidal ideation, so I've had disk 1 on repeat.



It is important to note that Michael Armine's vocals are almost entirely screaming/growling. If that alienates you...well, that's the point. Grow a pair or go home. But a connoisseur of screaming vocals will recognize Armine's style as unusually refined. Like Charles Maggio (Rorschach) or Scott Angelacos (Bloodlet), Armine's howling bleeds anguish, not vulgar testosterone.



The few lyrics that are intelligible without liner notes evoke the frozen isolation of the vast reaches of the intersteller vaccuum. They tell the story of an existential astronaut - a man who chooses to cross over abyss and annihilation to escape the frail and superficial comforts of the human world. Thematically, this record belongs in the same aesthetic/conceptual box as Stranger in a Strange Land and the David Bowie's gothic sci-fi phase (The Man Who Fell to Earth, Space Oddity) and Peter Schilling (Major Tom, Coming Home).



Musically, however, TGS remains firmly-planted in the evolving genre critics are calling "post-metal" (I hate the term) and it's a landmark statement in that movement. Fans of Isis, Neurosis, and Mouth of the Architect won't go wrong here. Fans of more subtle "post-rock" outfits like Explosions in the Sky, Red Sparrowes and Mogwai may also find something to appreciate here, but this record is as rugged as it is beautiful."

Something great

Peter K. | PA | 07/07/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is an amazing CD and I've had the luck to have seen Rosetta play live 2 times and both were incredible. If your into progressive space metal or "metal for astronauts" as they call it then check them out. For fans of Isis and pelican. they definitely share a strong resemblance to Isis but have a very unique sound to them so its nothing more than a small analysis.



as for the reviewer below, that is correct this is basically 3 CDs. first cd, second cd, then the combination of the two which is really interesting and a cool idea.



Rosetta is currently on tour so if you get the chance definitely see them live its quite an experience. buy this cd and see them play, i know you won't regret it."