Review - Places We Slept - Spring 2011 tour cd-r & Vickers - Spring Invasion Tour tape

Places We Slept are an emo band from Omaha that draw influences from the lo-fi Midwestern bands playing out in the mid-90's mixed with experimental elements a la contemporary bands like Merchandise.  These collection of songs were released for the Midwest tour Places We Slept embarked on in March.  This cd-r features three new songs, plus two old tracks and an added unreleased track.  Although Places We Slept's heavy use of dynamics is prevalent, most of the songs structures stay on the quiet side of the sonic spectrum with a soft vocal presence throughout. Two of the tracks are a year older and are much more straight forward.  I prefer the newer stuff more at the beginning of this cd-r and I'd like to see Places We Slept continue to explore the directions they are heading with this style of songwriting.  Oddly enough, the unreleased track has the best sounding recording of the bunch.  This is an emo band, so yeah, if you missed out on this style in the past this is the band for you. 

cd-r, 6 tracks, no lyrics.  www.placesweslept.bandcamp.com

Hailing from the darkest basements of Lincoln, Nebraska comes Vickers.  Vickers play a dirty form of experimental black metal that I can't find any other way to describe as besides ugly.  The one thing that separates Vickers from other experimental bands is that no guitar or bass is used at all.  Rather, an electrified fire axe (no shit), created and played by Violator X is the lone electric piece in the band creating a wall of sound.  I don't know how it's played, but it sounds similar to a guitar but has it's own tonal range, especially live.  The drumming is played in a early 80's style of death metal, and accompanies the other instrumentation well.  Fuck, the slower parts are crushing. The vocal styling here are more akin to 90's hardcore like Econochrist than the growls and squeals of metal styles.  The production on this tape does sound quite well with an even mix, and the soundclip's really gives a finished feel.  The song titles are pretty evil, but sadly no lyric sheet is provided.  This tape coincides with Vickers 2011 Spring Invasion Tour back in March.

cassette, 7 tracks, no lyrics.  http://www.facebook.com/violatorxoxoxox for inquiries.