God Bless our Dead Marines

Dead kids don’t get photographed,
God bless our dead marines.
-- A Silver Mt Zion

Well...on the strength of that quote I had better make it clear that we’re not about to embark on some weird and terrible blast of war vitriol ...this one is a music review maybe. That is something I rarely do, but after trudging through a copy of the Metro newspaper today I felt it was time to throw some words about.

Now, the Metro is a strange free newspaper that barely exists. It is insubstantial; the queasy shadow of a local newspaper crossed with a comic crossed with a gust of hot wind. Its angle is to turn the news into something that can be swallowed on the move and seems to be written by journalists desperate to move somewhere they think their talents wouldn’t be wasted.

Every so often, though, it has the capacity to surprise. Beyond the fast-food news and indifferent soundbites, there are several pages of reviews under the banner of Metro Life that work well and occasionally impress. Today I was startled and gratified to see a review of the Silver Mt Zion’s most recent album Horses in the Sky that came out a few weeks ago.

And what would the average commuter make of such an album? The hell I know...I have had the thing for weeks and still find it tough to sum up. The album is impressive, almost for the relentlessly vocal angle only previously hinted at. But mainly for its atmosphere of beautiful and stubborn resistance to a cold new world. Each Silver Mt Zion release takes a new direction (and frequently a new band name) and so far we have had the sparse lament of the first album, the fast and loose improvised feel of the second, the epic symphonic nature of the third and now the plaintive vocal album.

But the thread that runs through them all is the sense of reflection on the state of the world that comes across alternately as a powerful stench of despair and a glorious call-to-arms. Of course, what you get from the music is up to you...the atmosphere is something you have to make an effort to engage with. What we have here is something called post-rock, baby...it is not background music and has no catchy choruses, although it contains lyrics that echo in your head for days afterwards. At turns lonely, proud, isolated, sad, defiant, gentle and soaring...this feels like a genuine attempt to wrestle with the world’s fucked up nature rather than the all too common rent-an-emotion piano-and-strings wankery we are used to soundtracking dinner parties with. So the peaks are that much higher.

Whoops, this is all becoming a bit much. But what the hell. This is potent stuff and demands many, many listens as each layer reveals itself. Perhaps the new album is more straight forward that previous ones, its songs shorter and more vocal...but whatever direction they take you know that their heart beats stronger than ever.

And there is a real potency in the words they sing. One day I plan to drag a stereo system to the top of a hill and play the album at skull-crushing volume...beyond 11 into the realms of the vengeful and destructive. The message must be conveyed. Perhaps a few hundred people will be torn apart by the waves but it shall be worth it. Yes, that would be fun.

In summary, it good. Buy.