It's not often you see people using the words "shoegaze" "death metal" and "techno," all to describe the same band in the same sentence, but when it comes to Coaltar of the Deepers, genre is the first thing to go out the window. Formed in 1991, the band has deftly switched genres almost as much as they have switched members. The core duo of Narasaki and Kanno has seen around ten members come and go over the years.
While the band has taken a few breaks, they've managed to maintain a prolific output, releasing twenty albums and EPs in as many years . For the most part, CotD stick to the washed out, dream-like, grungy, indie-shoegaze sound that they started playing in the early '90s, though they've never been a particularly quiet or brooding band. You'll also get songs like "Giant" that start out with the light female vocals of Ichimaki (who has since left the band), singing a fast pop rock song, only to have it suddenly drop way down into a metal scream fest, then kick into some post-punk/disco sort of beat. "Hyper Velocity" also falls into the above formula of spaced out synths with a very fast beat and dreamy vocals, which then totally falls off the rails into a cookie-monster voiced electro-hell.
Their many EPs seem to be used as isolated playgrounds for the band to test the limits of various sounds.Their Yukari Telepath album takes a much more electronic path, fusing rock with simplistic yet organic synths and drum machines. Much like Supercar's Highvision, it's a fantastic example of dark yet non-gimmicky electro rock. Just about everything CotD does will make you wonder what's coming next with an eager anticipation. Let's just hope there's another twenty years of material on the way.
Giant
Official Site
Members:
Narasaki - Vocal, Guitar, Programming
Kanno - Drums
Live support:
Akira Nakayama - Guitars
Koji - Guitars
Watchman - Keyboard, Percussion
Kenjiro Murai - Bass
Albums:
THE VISITORS FROM DEEPSPACE - 1994
Come Over to the Deepend - 2000
NO THANK YOU - 2001
newave - 2002
Yukari Telepath - 2007
Dead By Dawn
Cell
Snow Again
2 comments:
Nice cameo by Richard D. James in the "Dead by Dawn" video. ; 3
I think they way I found out about Coaltar of the Deepers was from the "Related Videos" section when I was running through Youtube a few years back. I wasn't able to find much of their music to sample the rest of their catalogue.
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