Reliquia – The Graveyard School (Unit 26 Version)
Similar artists: Paradise Lost, Tiamat, Moonspell, My Dying Bride, Katatonia
Genre: Gothic / Dark Wave
The tritone isn’t the only musical element ever banned by religious organizations. Each spiritual practice, and, indeed, each group constructed using strict guidelines, has types of music that practitioners are discouraged from engaging with. Imagine that a sequence of sounds can conjure a mental image so clearly for so many people.
It’s easy to assume then that organized sounds might just be the easiest way to tell a story. It’s not easy, for example, for a writer to describe a landscape in such rich, vivid detail so as to make audiences believe that they are there. But close your eyes and listen to the right type of music, and you will immediately be transported to a place that will seem real enough to touch.
Reliquia’s “The Graveyard School” is rock music built from the evil-sounding foundation of gloomy doom metal and stoner groups. It’s a sound where the instruments immediately work to cast a witchy ritual and where the words are merely the proverbial cake’s icing. Reliquia’s song flirts with the concept of annihilation. But, just like walking through a graveyard, brief interactions with it might only help you enjoy life more.
Swansun – Orca
Similar artists: Thee Oh Sees, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Garage Rock
The world of pop music has never been more conventional, predictable, or boring. That’s bad news if you should find yourself in the direct vicinity of a radio blasting out Top 40 hits. But it does mean that this all helps to create unusual alternatives, musicians twice as dedicated to weirdness at all costs than they would be in normal circumstances.
Swanson are one of those groups. The love for unusual music might have always been with these individuals. But like many others like them, they’ve been guiding their freak wagon by the blinding light of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, a group that has made technical ability and humor a viable commercial proposition once more.
Swansun’s “Orca” is a song written by musicians who have accurately registered the weirdo public’s need for humorous and challenging music. It’s a comedy epic, an Aleister Crowley biopic made by Disney, Baron Munchausen icecapades. It’s mighty entertaining if you like this kind of thing and enough to get you and your musician friends to chuckle.
