Labels: Redwood
Review by: Mike Whelan
A bit daunting this. Just four tracks and over 40 minutes of music. Before pressing play I imagined lots of experimental Pink Floyd noodlings or loops and samples taken from the Appleseed Cast “Low Level Owl’ book of tricks. Instead, Vermilion just get on with playing their instruments, heads down and oblivious to whatever is going on around them, without bothering with very much technical hocus-pocusery.
Vermilion aren’t afraid of taking the scenic route to get to the end of their songs. Track one, “Frequent Universal Creations Keep Sound Eternally and Thoroughly Tasting Like Energy,’ veers from jazzy guitar, to crunching heavy metal guitar, and then onto Guns N’ Roses screeching guitar. And all this in a relatively conservative 11 minutes.
I’d not usually give this type of thing my time of day, but Vermilion carry off the instrumental-epic thing without the barest hint of pretentiousness. This is probably the sort of music hardcore kids would play if their girlfriend was coming round.
Of the four tracks on offer, the opener and “Pachydermo’ are the strongest. “Pachydermo’ kicks off with strings and quiet guitar creating a nice mood, before confusing everyone by turning into something that sounds like “Bohemian Rhapsody,’ without the energetic Freddy Mercury posing on the cover. Very good.
Vermilion will most likely never be big. Their sound is a little too unfriendly and unforgiving for casual listeners to take in, and people with short attention spans, like me for example, will probably write it off as arty nonsense. “Flattening Mountains and Creating Empires’ is interesting, and if you like prog-rock, it’s probably faultless.