TRILLION RED - Two Tongues CDEP review

TRILLION RED - Two Tongues CDEP
Self Released
Genre: Indie Rock?
Rating: 1/5

According to this band's bio, "TRILLION RED is a new band in the metal scene, but its unique style screams out as something new and refreshing amongst the plethora of redundant acts today." Look I'm listening to the music here and the only thing screaming is my bullshit detector which is telling me "I think you're listening to pretentious Indie Rock, ahhhh. I think you're listening to pretentious Indie Rock, ahhhh. I think you're listening to pretentious Indie Rock, ahhhh." Yeah for the most part this duo from San Francisco featuring Patrick Brown – vocals, keyboards, guitar and bass plus drummer Max, play eclectic post rock which sounds vaguely familiar. I'm thinking they were influenced by that whole early 90's new bohemian, neo-psychedelic movement with bands like BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE and the DANDY WARHOLS. Hell ya might as well toss in MY BLOODY VALENTINE (yes I know they're English but they fit) for good measure. On the whole there's nothing wrong with that because I liked BJM. Maybe Pat Brown is trying to be the next Anton Newcombe with shades of Courtney Taylor. (Is it one Taylor or two?) So they've taken that aesthetic and added some spazz but I still hear bongo drums there hippie. Here's another promo/bio quote; "The band’s musical background diverges from past garage rock, and dark metal bands." Yeah I nailed that one, ha! I'd also say there's some post punk in this mixture.

Now don't get me wrong since I'm not trying to shit on this band. I just think they wear their influences on their sleeves fairly obviously. Their next release should be a full length on Tee Pee records. That label loves this stuff. But as far as this being metal well I think there's some, but??? Two Tongues is comprised of just four cuts. The first one "No Visible Help (Hold Tight) is fairly shoegazer sounding with some dark ambiance as icing. It bleeds right into the next cut "Forging Two Tongues/A Reckoning". There's this haunting psych vibe carrying you along like you're in an opium haze until they break into a spazzcore blastbeat then repeat, then it's gets annoying. At it's very end they toss in some macabre ambiance for some strange reason. And it was going so well? When the following song, "Right Over To The Helm", got under way I was getting images of the COCTEAU TWINS in corpse paint or a any 4AD band with pentagrams on the album cover. Ironically enough (Ironic as in Hipster?) they end this with a cut titled "Lullaby" as in sleepy time. TRILLION RED has plenty of talent which is wasted on me as well as the extreme metal community. Ship their sounds over to England and they'll be on magazine covers hailed as the new avant garde rock gods.

Official: http://www.trillionred.com

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/trillionred