Palms
Released: June 25th, 2013
Label: Ipecac Recordings
There comes a time in a successful musician’s career where they decide to branch off into another band or side project. Most of the time, it’s a terrible decision. But after Maynard had his Pucifer and A Perfect Circle, it was about damn time for Cino Moreno to mate with Isis. Together, Moreno, Bryant Meyer, Jeff Caxide, and Aaron Harris fathered their brooding baby, Palms.
The highly anticipated self-titled album was originally supposed to have dropped over a year ago, but unfortunately I was kept in a state of nervous haywire since last summer. Finally, though, I got the chance to have my long overdue eargasm.
The album is nothing less of what I expected; a seamless marriage between Deftones and Isis, which is totally brilliant. Opening up with “Future Warrior“, Palms quickly whisks you into a downbeat atmosphere of utter depression as you reminisce about every lost love and puppy death you’ve ever encountered. But you love it. Cino’s distinctive cries play perfectly into the post rock and shoegaze style guitars. The third track “Mission Sunset” begins with touches of some indiscernible electronic sounds before you hear Meyer’s clean string plucks foreshadow another incredibly melancholy song. While the tracks all share the same flavor and maintain a very obvious cohesiveness, there is definitely a lot of progression that keeps the track list from becoming monotonous or fatiguing.
The fifth song “Tropics” proved to be a little underwhelming; however I say this because I don’t “get” minimalism. The track is the beatless, atmospheric ballad you’d hear in a slow-motion scene of someone drowning. The final track, which is unfortunately only track number six (you had three years Palms), is a completely instrumental track that somehow doesn’t sound like Isis.
With there being only six songs from which to form an opinion, I will say that I loved the first four tracks. From my sampling, it is hard to say of what is to come of Palms in the future. I really hope that the project ends up becoming that foreboding alternative, post rock, shoegaze cocktail I took it for 2/3 of the album. Simple math predicts we’ve got a good chance.
Buy the album:
[amazonmp3 asin=”B00CNGSWQI”]