Tuesday, January 3, 2012

And So I Watch You Shred From Afar


And So I Watch You From Afar is quite possibly the creepiest name for a band ever. Are this Northern Ireland trio a gang of stalkers to come to your house and play tunes in the bushes and then show up in your window at 5am or are they just a bunch of cool lads with cool tunes. Well judging by their latest album, Gangs I’d say it's the latter.

This power trio from hell play instrumental jams that will remind you of all those classic records that were on Shrapnel Records back in the 80's and 90's and more recent instrumental gymnasts like Oxes. Think Marty Friedman, Tony Macalpine, and artists on Troubleman Limited and you're on the right track. While labeled as "post rock" this is really more metal than anything and shares more in common with those legendary labels than anything else. This is an album of guitar shredding, pyrotechnics and technical mastery on display. The three members of And So I Watch You From Afar are ridiculously good musicians and they aren't afraid to hide it here.

With riffs zooming by at the speed of sound, thrashy bashed drums driving the band forward and wicked basslines carrying the troop, Gangs is a demo for what you can do with just three members if they have enough talent. An awesome instrumental album of post shredder metal that's cleverly disguised as post rock, Gangs is brilliant controlled chaos that is the sound of the impending apocalypse if it were a musical. With approximately 408679745 riffs, 69734 time signatures and 0 vocals this is a challenging musical album that no mortal man could ever hope to comprehend. Technically proficient and extremely good Gangs proves that the shredder still lives!

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