The Von Deer Skulls - It's Time To Paralyze E.P.

Well, this is a project that has odd origins, with the band members coming from Germany, Scandinavia, and Canada. Describing themselves as wood rock, the band consists of four different members as decribed by the band itself:

"...Peter is the son of the Shadows of the Canadian forest. Hektor is androgynous, semi-deer/semi-wild boar, he comes from Schwarzwald in Germany. Freke and Freyja are brother and sister, "twin", two faces of the same person, and the same person, wolf and lynx, they come from Faroe Islands."

Very nice and lovely description to get us started with. It's Time To Paralyze is their debut EP focusing on nine tracks; four of which last under a minute each, and one consisting of a bonus song. The Intro is really just self conscience in itself, with the narrative saying lines such as, "...It's not what we are, it's what we were. It's time to Paralyze. An album to know who we are. An album to learn and disappear." So, right off the bat, we're being told this is old material, but the dry humor brought forth gave these guys some points.

The Way To The Shadow is the second track on the album which presents forth a theme that the rest of the songs will follow; a low fi sound that really comes out during the guitar based sessions, but the peaceful trickling on the strings of the instrument comes out much more quiet and not as chaotic. A good blend of sounds. Plus, the vocals are creepy, not too loud, and nice sounding.

From The Wood managed to keep the tranquility, a bit of an ambient sound forming underneath the strumming. Toward the end, it got low fi once more, working in some drums and guitar for the last half minute or so before heading into a brief interlude, the first of two. Not much to say about it other than it followed the same paths worn by the previous tracks.

Whether or not the next song implemented samples (it really sounded like samples over anything) is unknown to me, but the voice provided an extra kick to create a pretty hypnotic song. And then we were hit with another interlude, the second of two; some nice strumming with a few effects here and there, but nothing all too special.

Memories served up some different, faded vocals that sounded hurt and in pain. But they worked with the sound of the song. It goes on and eventually, gets into a pretty fucked up and irregular beat; but the good kind of fucked up and irregular beat that makes you wanna continue listening. The Outro gave off a nice little piano session (they really should have incorporated that into more of their songs), and I adored it.

Finally, after so much softness, some hard rock is brought into play with B*tches Of The Wood, the bonus track. Some nice angry tunes in the beginning, followed by more light strumming with a few glitchy electronics presented made for a decent seven, almost eight minute song. Well done.

And, yea, these guys are pretty good. I like their style. It's both atmospheric, relaxing, but at the same time disturbing. To package that into multiple songs over and over again is an art form worthy of exploring. Check these guys out if you wanna experience their self-titled wood rock. Jul 29 2014