 The debut album release of This Band is Full of Spiders, The White Lodge blends many elements to create a very eclectic sound arrangement. With highs, lows, stability, insanity, chaos, melody, and variety, The White Lodge offers a little hook for anyone and then reels them in with the depth and memorable progressions.
The album opener “Karma” lays a foundation of almost static ambient sound and finishes strong with a powerful outro to give the listener a perception that the album is “warming up”. Following that is “Whisper Creek”, featuring bold guitars with fast and furious bass support. Stepping up from the opening track’s foundation, “Whisper Creek” brings in a unique guitar balance that smooths out before big payoff in the outro. Changing the direction by featuring a lilting ska-esque guitar presence, the third track “Childhood Toys” combines an upbeat tempo with more whimsical bass progressions to create a sound that really stands out on an album predominantly dedicated to more hard rock influences. Short and sweet at 1:49 in length, “Childhood Toys” ends as it begins, with an epic ska-rock outro that leaves the listener completely open to whatever may come next. Fourth on the track list, “Elysian Manifest” serves as somewhat of an anchor for the songs of The White Lodge. Featuring pounding guitars that revolve around the bass as a center focus with very deliberate drums and traces of hardcore roots, this song serves well in combining many of the most prevalent aspects of the album, as well as enhancing the previous “Childhood Toys” as a deviation from the standard. Following “Elysian Manifest” is “The Farm Boy and The Moon”, a song that smooths out the guitars but maintains hardcore tones with deep bass and balanced feel of adventure, dread, and action. The only collaboration on The White Lodge is track number six, “Explorers of Egypt”, featuring Kruxsaur. With a very ambiguous, dark, and brooding intro, “Explorers of Egypt” re-introduces the more melodic feeling instilled in the listener at the beginning with “Karma”. Utilizing methodically timed guitar riffs with ambient fade-ins and smooth transitions, this track balances with “Elysian Manifest” in a spectacular way, focusing on more on the hard rock than the hardcore. Drawing from “Explorers of Egypt”, the seventh track “Downward Spirals” also uses a fade intro, but the ambiance is short lived and is replaced by a much darker, heavier sound. With deep bass, hectic guitar work, and drums that seemingly travel to every end of the percussion spectrum for speed and timing, the song pulls you down to a level below “Explorers of Egypt”. A more solemn, almost somber level. It’s an excellent journey into the more emotional depths of The White Lodge. Continuing the ride is “Like Machines Do”, a quick and dirty song with flaring guitars and what could easily be the most methodical and bold song on the album. Deep bass, eccentric riff organization, and outstanding drum work all come together to widen the album’s experience even further. Track nine, “Seeping”, returns us to the darker reaches of “Downward Spirals” with fast-paced progressions, balanced guitars, with extra attention given to the equal representation of all guitars. Breaking up smoother sound bites with chunky breakdowns, “Seeping” presents as a half-melodic, half-gritty beast that means business. The final, and longest, track on The White Lodge is “Elysium In Binary”. Starting with crashing drums over a slow and simple guitar intro, this track seems to slowly buildup over the entire first four minutes it plays. You get lost in the melody, the ambiance, and the powerful sound of the guitars. Then, with powerful and climactic ending, the experience is brought full circle, leaving a very substantial and fulfilling feeling for the listener. An excellent debut if I ever heard one, The White Lodge by This Band is Full of Spiders is very varietal and makes excellent use of mood changes changes while maintaining a uniform fluidity that really stands out and presents well to the ears. It’s a high recommendation for those seeking great examples of how tie together a collection of songs into a singular experience. - Noyd
1 Comment
 POM RECORDS has reopened!
There's still a few things I'm tweaking, optimizing and making better but overall the site is functional and I didn't want to hold up the site any longer. It's not a HUGE change but the redesign I think is much nicer & fuller. The old design felt really boxed in. The band pages have been improved also. I've incorporated what we did from the other community site "The Corner". I spent a bunch of hours fixing everything to fit the new format/sizing, making graphics, etc but if you find a bug, link that doesn't go anywhere or any other issues then contact me. Leave a comment about the new design on here and I hope you guys enjoy the site! -TheGhostofRickJames  Randy (POM Records): Where the hell have you guys been? Derek (drummer): Let's just say an extra long holiday! We had no idea what to do next after Fight Back, especially considering it took a lot out of us. All our best work, not something just to get sales, something to really make an impact on our fans. Randy: So what is Evolution? How has the band progressed? Derek: Evolution is basically just showing how we've progressed in the music world. The tracks some of our fans won't recognize are songs we wrote before signing onto this record label. We felt that our community would want to see who we were before our big releases. Hello Good Times of Old was written at least 5 months before our first release here, as was Peasant. That Bitter Taste a few will recognize, personally my favorite song because I get some awesome stuff to back, as it's our latest addition. The band certainly has progressed, even Haza will say that! You can see that in the music, I don't need to tell newcomers to our band that. Randy: The album contains three new tracks and three previous ones. How did you decide on which three previous to put in? Derek: This wasn't massively my decision, Haza had the last word. But I think he made a good choice. He chose three of our best, voted by the fans, and had a look over three older songs. He chose three songs that not many people had heard, that our fans hadn't seen yet. They show how much we've come along! It's funny because back then, we thought the songs we wrote then were the best we'd ever write. But a few months down the line, we're writing big hitters that bring in more and more fans every week. Randy: When putting together the three new tracks (Hello Good Times of Old, Peasant & The Bitter Taste), what was going through your minds? What did you guys want to show your fans regarding your Evolution? Derek: What we wanted, was to show how much can change when you put your mind to it. Back then, when we were a mere small-town band, we thought we'd never get up there, never be like Spanky Revolution, never be like 1st Assault. Those guys are our heroes man, serious. And to be mentioned in the same breath as them, that's an honor. We just wanted to reveal our journey here. Randy: The albums Fight Back and Light's Absence were released in the Fall of 2012. How do guys feel about their chart status? Are you guys happy with your previous albums and how they've done? Derek: Fight Back is certainly one of our highlights so far. At the current moment, 23 downloads is amazing for us. The lower downloads on our previous releases just show how far we've come. Sure, we'd like more. Faceless Culture are sure getting there, but we just don't want to go down that route, the mainstream heavy metal route. Their music is good, very good in fact, but we don't want to become that kind of band. Lee said one time that "When everyone's heads go down, we want to be that band people fall to". Positivity is what we strive for. Randy: So now that Evolution is on the label. What are your plans? Any tours or promotional events? or are you guys going to play it smooth, stay unseen and some time later release some more awesome tracks? Derek: We don't really know at this time. I think Haza had some idea of inviting some bands from here to a one night only event, but apart from that we will stay in the shadows. The Night Before may leap out occasionally so look out for that! Personally, we probably won't release anything big anytime soon here, but hey, we're gonna try, get out there, for the fans, for us, for music. Here's to Evolution. Note: Haza is the bands manager  click to download Hey guys, TheGhostofRickJames here. I've been thinking about redesigning the site but I'm not sure if it's just a whim of mine or if it's actually worthwhile. I'd like for you guys to help me decide.  click to download GENRE: CLASSIC ROCK / PUNKTracklist 1. Hello Good Times of Old
2. Peasant 3. Journey of a Passenger 4. Fight Back 5. Fun and Games 6. That Bitter Taste Reviewed by PunkRock I found this album to be quite enjoyable, because there were heavier tracks like "It Remains III" and tracks that had a massive lead guitar like "World-Wide Destruction." Most of the songs in this album were somewhat repetitive like "Vengeance" and "Riot." But then there were songs like "Nothing New" that had a GREAT intro and dissonance, along with some key changes really struck me by surprise and made me head-bang like crazy! And then there [is a] shorter song like "Metal Minute Madness" that [is] only a minute long and [is] VERY creative and VERY good. Overall this was a great album that I found to be very creative and to somewhat tells a story, as well as being really enjoyable and fun to listen to. Great job Faceless Culture!  click to download  Grab the original Untamed and the newer Untamed 2 in this Faceless Culture - Untamed Combo Pack! Untamed is the most widely downloaded on POM Records with 100 copies sold so far! If you don't have either of the albums then here's your chance to own two of the best METAL albums on the label & in the POM world! INCLUDES 12 TRACKS & 3 MUSIC VIDEOS!
|
NEWS, INTERVIEWS, RELEASES & MORE
A Punk-o-Matic Community Project based off a Flash game by Evil Dog Games
Play Punk-o-MaticHelp support the label via Patreon; no pressure!
Categories
All
Archives
January 2025
SITE MANAGER |
|
POM RECORDS | EVIL DOG GAMES All Rights Reserved 2012-2025 SITE BEST VIEWED ON DESKTOP
|