Mass Burial: Squalus, The Great Fish

I don’t remember when, because Life often moves too fast for my mind to grasp the good parts tightly enough to crystallize them into memories these years. There was an announcement that some of the members of the great Giant Squid were putting together a project that would use samples from the 1975 meisterwerk Jaws, the movie that invented the concept of the summer blockbuster, as well as a movie that has clearly been an enormous inspiration for the members of Giant Squid. The initial announcement made it seem that this new band, dubbed Squalus, was going to use sample, samples, like they did on “Eating Machine” from Metridium Fields. So, my understanding of this new project was a bunch of songs like “Eating Machine”. And while “Eating Machine” does appear in altered form on The Great Fish, I was totally unprepared for what this record really was.

Mass Burial: Giant Squid, Minoans

Minoans is the last Giant Squid record, in that it is the last record these musicians would release under this name. This is a good combination of the song composition and content that the band has always offered, but largely loses the sludgy lurch of their earlier works.

And that is a quality of this band that I have always really, really appreciated, so to have it mostly disappear is a little bit of a personal let down. Not to say that the band has lost its magic, as that is something that was always provided by the compositions and their atmospheric moments; but the Giant Squid of Metridium Fields and the heavier moments of The Ichthyologist will always be preferable to me to the cleaner, more polished Giant Squid of Cenotes and Minoans. But enough, lest I become That Guy, eager to disparage the modern output in favor of toasting unnecessarily again the old. It is the absence of sonic density that causes the musical density to be somewhat overlooked, at least by myself somewhat regularly.

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.

Mass Burial: Giant Squid, The Ichthyologist

The Ichthyologist picks up exactly where Metridium Field leaves off, with a slower, hypnotic track in “Panthalassa”. And what a way to start their second full length. An album that holds a special place in my heart, although a different one from the spot occupied by Metridium Field, The Ichthyologist has a dense and unsettling atmosphere about it that can, at certain times, be downright suffocating.

Mass Burial: Giant Squid, Metridium Fields

Metridium Fields is the first full length record from the outstanding Giant Squid, and it is an absolute titan of an album. This album has an interesting and somewhat tragic history, having been the band’s debut prior to Monster in the Creek, but then being rerecorded and rereleased after that EP. I’m not going to get into the bizarre story here, but I suppose if you’re interested in a band that wasn’t going to let life get in the way of them releasing their vision, it’s worth looking into.

The record is eight total tracks, with one being a sub-one minute interlude (“Eating Machine”), one being an eerie intro piece (“Megaptera in the Delta”) , and six pretty lengthy masterworks. I kind of don’t want to just go track to track, because I feel that wouldn’t be very interesting to read; but if there was an album that really warranted that type of scrutiny, it would certainly be this one. So, let’s do it, I guess. I have already realized that this is going to be the album that I will gush about most over the course of this Mass Burial, so I might as well not try to restrain myself when I know it is futile.

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.