Rosetta : " Quintessential Ephemera"

This is the 5th full length and first as a 5 piece from this Philly based band who describes their music as being" music for astronauts". The first song "After the Funeral" is an instrumental with some very spacey guitar tones so you can see how this description might apply right from the get go. The they go int a series of untitled songs, on the first  when the vocals come in the coarse nature sounds like it could have come from any sludge meet post rock hybrid. I liked the way they step back and can space things out to allow the song breathing room. The clean vocals are smooth and not forced , sure they have an element of old Myspace emo to them, but they work, sometimes better than the bands efforts to get heavy which can feel like they are trying to hard and it is not being done organically. The vocals go higher they begin to remind me of the Used.


The second untitled songs starts the same way the next ended so on a cd this will be a smoother transition , but also might lead to you wondering which song you are on.Until the syncopated part and this effected guitar melody line that soars out of the song it stays to a similar bag of tricks. The fourth song is more of the same change some accents here and there, the bass line that emerges from the break is cool and they begin to take on a drugged out night on the beach  Janes Addiction like feel. The transition into heavier tones is the first that really works well for me and this is the first song where every thing seems to be clicking to my ears.The guitar melodies soar above the fury and have well placed purpose.

 The fifth untitled song is really more of an interlude as it's a twinkling little instrumental that never builds into any kind of solid beat to become a song.The sixth untitled song is pleasing to my ears as it gets darker, the vocals melody makes me think of the Deftones more melodic moments. When it gets heavier I can hear some Thursday influence as well. They build of the heavier dynamic going into the song that follows. They drop down into some post- Myspace girl friend metal, that keeps the heaviness off set by the sugar soaked melodies. The last real song of the album before the two remixes which I am not going to bother with is "Nothing in the Guise of Something". Its a dreamy post rock with a shoe gaze glaze to it that coasts along on the clouds.While there are some cool sounds captures they are not doing anything new.  That can generally be said for most songs on this album, however I'll round it up to an 8 since their song writing tends to distract you from that fact. https://www.facebook.com/abysmalhymns