Mass Burial: Giant Squid, Monster in the Creek

So, I got a request for this Mass Burial. Maybe a suggestion would be more accurate. My ten year anniversary of my relationship with my wife is rapidly approaching, and in the time leading up to our dating, I had been investing a lot of time in the band Giant Squid, a now defunct progressive sludge outfit from California. Not entirely defunct, so much as they have morphed into an incredibly similar “new” band with a different name: Squalus.

Monster in the Creek is kind of technically the debut EP from this tragically, tragically underrated and underappreciated band. Technically, because their debut full length, the spectacular Metridium Fields, was released initially before this EP but was then released again, or officially, after this EP. Don’t worry, that won’t be the only mind blowing part of this Mass Burial. The band primarily wrote songs about aquatic life or tales of the sea, and Monster in the Creek gets its name from the 1916 Jersey Shore shark attacks, where a number of people were killed by sharks while swimming in the normally shark free area of New Jersey. This event would eventually serve as the inspiration for the total classic movie Jaws.

The EP consists of six songs, all of which show a band that is versatile and not welded to any particular music style. Opening title track is a smooth, female-fronted tune that deals with the pseudo-titular shark incident, and the haunting vocals of Aurielle Zeitler deliver a really chilling account of the events of 1916’s summer. The really beautiful and haunting female vocals are eventually replaced by the more forceful and distinct vocals of main vocalist Aaron Gregory, who will carry most of the vocal duties for the remainder of the bands’ career, and bears a more than passing semblance to the singer from System of a Down, whose name I can’t remember at the moment. 

This ethereal Zeitler/gruffer, vibrato Gregory interplay will be an absolute staple of the bands’ sound moving forward. At times more aggressive, such as on the song “Throwing A Donner Party At Sea” and sometimes more laid back, as with “Dare We Ask the Widow,” the employ of these two very different vocals would end up being a hallmark of the band, and this is a band of many hallmarks. Something that is really marvelous about the two vocalists is that they don’t *really* fit that “beauty and the beast” mold that a number of metal bands were doing around the mid-2000’s, where there would be essentially a Death metal growler or a Groove metal shouter and a clean-singing female vocalist. That kind of arrangement, although fine for its time, proved to be pretty short-lived in terms of viability, with Italy’s Lacuna Coil being the only band that I’m aware of that is still doing it to any successful degree. No, Giant Squid wasn’t doing that, as Gregory isn’t a growler, and Zeitler is far more atmospheric and haunting than the female voice in that “beauty and the beast” pairing really ever was.

Musically in general, Giant Squid ends up being more of a later Neurosis or ISIS (the band ISIS, so, settle down there, hashtag patriots. – mr) type of band, which is what gets them pegged as a Sludge band, but even softer than those groups. To call this a Sludge band is I think to admit that they totally resist categorization, despite our need to put them into a category. This EP for sure, is a mishmash of styles, and the only real fast paced or harsh song on it is “Throwing A Donner Party At Sea,” and that’s not a Sludge tune at all either. EP closer “Lester Stillwell” is an electronic track. The Sludge tag is more readily applied to certain parts of their first proper album Metridium Field. But being a band of diverse styles is going to be a Giant Squid characteristic, and something that makes them truly interesting and engaging, along the lines of the aforementioned later day Neurosis and In the Absence of Truth –era ISIS.

And, as a band, Giant Squid is going to get better and better with each release. Thus far, my Mass Burials have been more focused on exposing myself to a new or underappreciated band in my own sphere; but this time, it is my hope that anyone reading these who is unfamiliar with the band will decide to check them out and find the awesome, underappreciate and tragically unknown band that I fell in love with many years ago. (Yes, I am talking to you.)