Labels: north east indie
Review by: Andy Malcolm
The release of this caught me by surprise. In fact, the whole existance of this record caught me by surprise. In the past 12 months or so, the fact that Cerberus Shoal’s debut LP was a dyed in the wool mid 90’s emo slice of talking, sobbing and guitar twinkling came to light. I had never heard mention of this album before. All I knew of Cerberus Shoal was that they had been around for ages and the songs I had heard by them were kind of weird. So this slice of information intrigued me. Being an emo completist, this record became one that I very much wanted to own. But I never saw it anywhere. Maybe it was a legend. And then, as if by magic, out pops a cd reissue of the very same album. Now, every emo-ologist knows that a cd reissue is merely an acceptable way of getting a record you really need to hear. Emo sounds wrong on cd, it’s a fact. Ridiculously un-necessary. Anyone who suggests otherwise is faking their emo credentials and deserves to be laughed out of our stupid little club. Especially emo that has been “re-mixed” and “re-mastered”. I ask you! But when there is simply no other way of hearing that record, you may as well settle for a soulless piece of silver metal cased in a tiny package that you’ll probably misplace behind your Knotwork 7″ and forget about for 3 years at a time.
Enough! Of my pitiful rambling. Howabout a review. This CD gets off to an unsatisfactory start with a fairly straightforward and uninspiring instrumental that could have been a Policy of 3 song if a guy cried a lot over the top, although they do sensibily re-use it later and actually do cry over the top that time. Luckily after that opening two and a half minutes is dispensed with, we get down to the nitty gritty. The weeping, the bawling, the guitars that all spiral around and tear your heart out. They go for the Slint angle even more than Indian Summer, so I guess the ideal comparison is September. This album should have come out on Tree. Where for art thou Kenneth Shipley? The first real song twinkles to bits with softly spoken vocals drifting from the singers surely beard clad face. The drums are intense, and the song builds up and explodes into crashing guitars and teary eyed screaming. Emo. And they pretty much utilise that style for the rest of the album. It’s so Indian Summer. I just don’t really understand why nobody ever talked about this record, as it is in the classic mid 90’s style it should be more popular! But I guess it’s because it’s not listed on Fourfa or because the band stopped playing emo or something? Very odd. This is probably the band that the Saddest Landscape want to be, if that gives you any idea. Track 4 has an extremely downbeat intro and the song reminds me of Still Life, it’s gorgeous and builds up into thick, chunky guitars that just ooze out the repetition to great effect. This band really perfected the art of the twinkly guitars, a lot of bands could learn from this record.
Overall, this is a good record. It is not a great one, but it is a fine example of a type of music I love, and seeing as so few bands do this kind of thing these days, I am not going to turn my nose up at hearing a long lost version of it from the past. Now, how about a repress of the vinyl so we can hear it as it was intended to be heard in the first place?