Saturday, December 16, 2017

Mass Burial: Giant Squid, Cenotes





Cenotes is an EP that showcases one particular thing that has been part of the Giant Squid repertoire from the beginning, but given the sheer amount of things happening musically, can often be overlooked. From the opening seconds of the record, a strong Middle Eastern influence can be heard. And, it has been there all along, not a thing that has just surfaced for these five songs.


The snaking, winding quality that the band has employed so very well over the span of their catalog has been the result of more Arabic progressions, but it has not been as front and center as it is here. Indeed, Cenotes has the feeling of being a bit stripped down, missing some of the more blustery or atmospheric elements of the previous works, presenting music that is perhaps the most metallic of the Giant Squid experience to date. Opener “Tongue Stones” and midpoint “Snakehead” are probably the most straightforward metal songs in the band’s catalog, although that is not to say that this EP portrays a different band. “Mating Scars” and the closing title track are vintage Giant Squid, the title track even having that repeating sludgy riff that plays the song out, a miniaturized version of “Metridium Fields” from that album.

Being just five songs, and all of them shorter than much of the previous two full length albums, there is not a whole lot to really talk about with this EP. Probably the biggest standout idea is the Middle Eastern flair that the music displays, which again, has always been there, but is here in the spotlight. Unlike a band like, say, and I know what a horrible comparison this is, Nile, who is 100% out in the open about their use of Middle Eastern and Arabic scales, Giant Squid seems to have always kept it a bit quieter, or at least, has not presented it as a cornerstone concept. For Nile, said musical approach fits their overall oeuvre, and it’s kind of what they built their gimmick on. For Giant Squid, it seems to be something adopted more in the service of the music itself. I’m not sure that I’m being clear with that. Giant Squid utilizes this for artistic reasons, and I feel my skin start to crawl at the thought that I’m trying to be one of “those” guys, one of those “there’s music, and then there’s art” kind of guys, and I’m not. Nile, for anyone old enough to remember, what, 2001, when they burst onto the scene, was advertised as being an Egyptian themed Death metal band: everything about them fit that title. They use Egyptian imagery and art in their album art; they write songs about Egyptian mythology or history; they use Middle Eastern scales and on occasion instrumentation. Nile is a band whose image and hype and success are based on this Middle Eastern/Egyptian-ness. Giant Squid writes songs about sea creatures, and music that captures the loneliness and eeriness of the ocean. There is nothing specifically Middle Eastern about that; it just so happens that they are able to capture those qualities better via a Middle Eastern approach to music.

And it has always been there, just not as laid bare.  Overall, Cenotes is a stripped down Giant Squid, one free of the heavy sludgy atmosphere and the effects that it brings. As a result, Cenotes is, kind of like Monster in the Creek before it, a less interesting Giant Squid. The songs are good, and there is no doubting that this is Giant Squid, but something is missing. That atmosphere, that feeling, just is not here. When I was preparing to embark on this Mass Burial, I kept thinking that I didn’t feel all that familiar with Cenotes, at least not as much as I am with the previous two albums, and upon relistening I remembered why. It just doesn’t Giant Squid enough for me. The songs are good, with the title track and “Snakehead” and “Tongue Stones” being just as good as anything else in their history, and maybe it is unfair to ask an EP to do what previous, hour long offerings have done. But, it is not the first, or second, or third, work from this group that I would reach for, and that’s basically because there just isn’t enough of it.

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