Back in the late 90’s, The End Records was the premier label for unique and talented music. Having been responsible for unleashing the early records of Agalloch, Sculptured and Nokturnal Mortum I’ve always felt somewhat in debt to them for their genius choices and great taste in music. Unfortunately one of their early signings which just never took off was Willard, Missouri, USA three piece, Scholomance.
On, ‘A Treatise on Love’ these guys forged a sound between progressive metal, German Krautrock and neo classical with black metal influences. Imagine something like the technical abilities of Death and Dream Theatre coming together with the keyboard sounds of Klaus Schulze’s or later day Arcturus albums plus some sort of black metal influence and perhaps then you’d be close to understanding this record.
Throughout the record guitarist Scott Crinklaw overwhelms the ears with complex and interesting solos while Jimmy Pitt’s keyboards and piano add an amazing and often times beautiful atmosphere to the music, and while the bass is buried and a drum machine is used it really doesn’t affect the overall quality much. Jimmy also handles the vocals which appear in a somewhat typical shrieking black metal style, which is where I make the black metal connection, though there are some speedy and dissonant moments which also nod their head at this genre.
A couple of years after this record Scholomance returned with their sophomore release and shortly thereafter broke up and voided any chance of the band every reaching higher ground. It’s unfortunate since these albums seem to be often found at second hand stores (at least I’ve seen both albums before) and instead of being giants in their own unique genre they are just a memory of the past. If you should ever come across either of the bands albums definitely consider picking them up. They also sell at dirt cheap prices over at The End Records website.
No comments:
Post a Comment