I fucking love this band. I love this album. It will probably be my favorite album of the year. When you find a style that you just fucking love (ie. instrumental metal), as well as a band that embodies said style completely, you’re sure to be one happy camper.

It has been hard for me to find other fans of Pelican. I wish I could find more of ‘em. A lot of my snot-nosed music critic friends say that Pelican use simple, crappy riffs to write simple songs with a drummer who bites a ball sack… well, my friends can bite one themselves, cuz nothing causes me to nearly knock my head off on the steering wheel, crank the volume louder, or play air drums / guitar more feverishly and with as much emotion than these guys. I love Pelican, and anyone who tells me I need to listen to “real metal” can shut right the fuck up.

When I purchased the band’s debut EP, the shock value it brought to my ears and bowels nearly loosened them. It was a rumbling so deep, so raw, and so loud: like a maelstrom of white noise resonating with the perfect tone. Their next two releases were also nothing short of perfection. The pure joy that I got when I bought The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw was amazing. It was a personal highlight of 2005, and an album that helped me through a trip that nearly cost me my sanity. I figured it would be the group’s crowning achievement.

I was wrong.

City of Echoes is Pelican’s best album yet. The proof is in every change, in the riffs that sound like they are supposed to fill cathedrals, in the stories they tell, in the pure play off of the guitarists, in the drummer’s seemingly everlasting head of ideas and hard hits, and of course in the bassist’s ability to add another full, essential layer. One only needs to listen to the title track or the insanely thick and epic "Far From Fields”: massive and overwhelming. I love this stuff, it’s just perfect in my opinion: the way I want music to sound all the time, the way I want it to fill my eyes with tears and chill the back of my neck when the chords build to that moment of purity.

This is the next step, folks. Even for the nonbelievers, City of Echoes is worth a peek because the band have grown a lot. The music is unbelievably tight and a lot more to the point than their older albums.

I can’t hype this thing enough. This music is exactly what I want my heaven to be when I die.
www.hydrahead.com/pelican
www.hydrahead.com

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Ryan Harig

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 Past Constructive Criticism

Joe Proffitt posted the following Constructive Criticism: i agree with everything you said about pelican. they are even better live. the sound and the musicians that shape it are completely underrated and deserve some recognition. i feel sorry for those that say "listen to real metal." i just think they can't grasp that metal can take a different shape. it doesn't have to be solos and double bass every song or screaming and growling. look at what Pelican has done so far without solos and screaming. they get their point across without saying more than "Hi, Were Pelican!" they have followed the path that Neurosis, Godflesh and Isis have made and Pelican has strayed from that path to create their own. i love this band and when you talk to them after a show they are modest and say, "we are not that great, but thank you for the kind words." humble and no attitude. great band and great dudes.

Brandon posted the following Constructive Criticism: excellent review Ryan. these guys are beyond amazing live.