May 20, 2009

Rose of Avalanche. In Rock.

roa

For some reason, even though I know they were British, my mental catalog card for these guys tags them as being from some not quite identifiable European country with a flan-based economy. Oh, let’s say…Finland. Somewhere that learned English idioms and phraseology from SNL’s Two Wild and Crazy Guys, which could account for their rather awkward moniker and an album title so bland it almost sounds pretentious. Or maybe I’m just being led astray by the Fjarkorgstanian titles of a few of the songs. While I’m piling on—that guy in the middle up there looks like a really clammy Richard Ashcroft.

Anyway, despite all of that, In Rock does in fact, you know…rock. Numerous places describe them as goth, and while they do sound conspicuously like Bauhaus or Sisters of Mercy on more than one occasion, they also remind me of Echo and the Bunnymen and The Mighty Lemon Drops. I’d say they were more post-punk with shades of Television-like grandeur. Either way, they’ve been undeservedly overlooked. Not Another Day and Height of the Clouds Part 2 are particularly storming and should have been enough to make them at least minor stars.

In Rock

Rose of Avalanche official site

Rose of Avalanche on myspace

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