Wednesday, August 24, 2016

LP Review: "Covenant of Teeth" by Morrow

Covenant of Teeth
There are times when things are not best left to the imagination.

In those times, we need to know what makes a hero worthy of an epic poem, series, etc.

Odysseus, Gilgamesh, and Musashi transcended history into myth and lesson. (NOTE: Ulysses was the Roman name and we are committed to only using the Greek names here.)

Epics are more than just a long story. Were that the case, Harry Potter would be an epic hero many times over and even Stuttering Bill from IT would be saddled with the title.

Of course that's just not true.

The same works for music. Ina Gadda Da Vida is over seventeen minutes long, but it cannot rightly be called an epic. There is no story and frankly the song doesn't go anywhere. Even Jimi Hendrix's, aka God Himself" Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) Live, though it typically clocks in over ten minutes long isn't an epic.

Morrow
Epics aren't about how long it takes you, though it did take Odysseus over twenty years to return home...

It's about where they take you.

The four (yes four) tracks on this LP crisscross over barren wastelands, snowy tundras, rivers, and former forests.

As has been said here, it's easy to write a long song and it's easy to write a slow song, but it's hard to make them great songs. It's very easy to write long, slow, and boring songs.

This is where Morrow's greatest abilities come to the fore. These songs are stories in and of themselves. From humble beginnings, to sorrowful speeches, to strains of violins, that end up exploding in desperate fury.

Every song took me to hell and back.

It's hard to pin down what kind of music this is, but it's easy to tell you how it made me feel. If Gilgamesh had a soundtrack, it would probably be this record.

Release: 9/2/16
Genre: Metal
Label: Halo of Flies
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1 comment:

  1. Interesting, but I'm not typically a fan of such long tracks. Maybe I'll give this one a try, thanks for the share, Nik!

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