Review Summary: Now Playing: The Soundtrack to Hell.
"And welcome back to the Tonight Show with Satan! With appearances by....... Hitler! Also on tonight's show....... Jimmy Fallon! With musical guest....... Creed! And give it up for Pelican, the Tonight Show band! Heeeeeere's Satan!". The crowd of minions goes wild as Satan enters his nightly talk show set located in the depths of Hell. "Give it up for these guys!", Satan proclaims as he points towards the house band, Pelican, as they tear into the first few chords of 'Embedding the Moss'. The crowd is shaking in their seats as Pelican plays the notes that sound like the devil himself had written. "Aren't you glad these bastards ended up in Hell!", Satan yells out, but the crowd is too busy being aurally penetrated by the sounds of Pelican.
Pelican certainly will not be condemned to eternal damnation if they keep creating quality music as heard on their latest extended play,
Ephemeral.
Ephemeral brings together everything Pelican has been working towards into a short twenty minute EP. Their signature post-metal sound is heavier than ever and refined to perfection. The guitar has always been the center of Pelican's music, and it is no different here. Guitarist Trevor de Brauw crafts his best riffs to date that are some of the most memorable in the genre. de Brauw also uses calm sections in the music to play spacey riffs found on typical post-rock records. The merger of these two styles works flawlessly. Not to be overlooked, bassist Bryan Herweg lays on the bass thicker than the blood that flows through the rivers in Hell. Keeping his basslines simple, but thick, Herweg allows the guitar to shine while still allowing himself to share the spotlight. Drummer Larry Herweg has always been seen as a weak link in the band's lineup, but proves to be more than competent at his position on
Ephemeral. The drums hit you hard, but never gets too fancy, sticking to simple beats that let the other instruments take center stage. The band plays tighter than ever; and with the gritty production provided by Chris Common, the band has never sounded better.
Ephemeral only contains three songs, one of which being a cover, however, this is Pelican's best work so far. Pelican has struggled in the past with long drawn out songs that did not keep the listener interested due to too much atmospherics and not enough substance. Changing their style on their later records, Pelican slightly missed the mark by completely taking away the atmosphere of the previous records, leaving the listener looking for something more within the music. Bringing together both of these styles on
Ephemeral, Pelican creates the sound listeners have been searching for since the beginning. From the first pounding chords of 'Embedding the Moss' the listener is gripped by the neck and taken to another world. Heavy sections are dropped into calmer sections that let you take a breathe before punching you back in the face with another brutal riff. Both 'Embedding the Moss' and 'Ephemeral' use this method, and both songs are instant classics. Pelican ends the album with a cover of Earth's 'Geometry of Murder'. The band does a superb job bringing new life to this sludgy track, but it does not reach the standard set by the previous tracks. Even more disappointing, the track has no climax or anticlimax, which ends the album on a dull note. 'Geometry of Murder' can be seen more of a bonus than part of the album, but it still does not satisfy even in that sense. Fading out into white noise,
Ephemeral is over before you can say "Jimmy Fallon sucks".
"... I would like to thank my guests Hitler and Jimmy Fallon, and give it up for Creed!", Satan ends his daily show while Pelican plays off the show as the audience flees for safety in their homes. Reflecting back on the show, audience members realize that Pelican has come a long way since Austeralasia. Going against the grain from the beginning, Pelican mixed two unlikely genres, post-metal and post-rock. Successfully coming into their own,
Ephemeral is the beginning of a new era for Pelican. With their sound perfected, and a passion for playing, Pelican should be a band on every music lovers list after
Ephemeral.
