Full Review: The Appleseed Cast – Sagarmatha
Stop waiting for the singing to start and just enjoy the ride because this is not the same ol’ stuff that you’ve been fed before. ‘Sagarmatha’ is more like a soundtrack for the images in your mind, more like a collection of thoughts being conveyed to the listener as rises and falls, highs and lows.
The singing is used just as another instrument not made louder but kept in the same volume as all the other pieces. I do understand and enjoy how the vocals are done but still long for the more traditional style of song writing The Appleseed Cast produced on ‘Two Conversations’.
There are 2 absolutely breathtaking tracks and both happen to have singing in them. “The Summer Before” and “Raise The Sails” steal the show on the record with “One Reminder, An Empty Room” bridging the two together with soft strumming and picking from an acoustic guitar. On “The Summer Before” the vocals blend into the music so much that only words like “Arizona” and “California” audibly slip past the noise and give you something to try and sing along with. The song is lazy like a hot and sunny day spent driving west across a dusty state line as you think back to memories of last summer. “Raise The Sails” on the other hand has more force behind it from the start, like being at sea with the blowing wind. The song takes shape about a minute forty in when the music quickly changes to a quicker rhythm before lightening back up with steady strumming.
There is a lot to like about this record and hardcore fans won’t be deterred whether it was they were looking forward to from the band or not. There will be a lot of people though that just don’t get it, who don’t understand the long intervals of rhythmic patterns void of a clear message. I would have to agree with those people that at times it does take too much work to understand or enjoy the complex work of ‘Sagarmatha’. Your mood and the circumstance which you’re in at the moment really will determine how much you enjoy these songs.
I’m going to leave the ending pretty ambiguous letting you come up with the conclusion because I think that’s what the album does with chaotic music of “An Army Of Fireflies”.
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Release Date: February 17th
Label: Vagrant
Tags: the appleseed cast
February 27th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Man, am I the only person in the world that just wishes Josh Baruth would just come back and rescue The Appleseed Cast from what they have become? I hated Pengrine but this album is alot better… and still would be alot better if Josh were on it.
Call me old fashioned (or something else), but rudimentary, no-filles, drumming just doesn’t do it for me… no mater how awesome the guitar parts are.
Love the feel of this album, just really feel like it could have been better and that it would make me more happy to see Appleseed Cast go away as a band rather than produce crap.
These guys used to be my all time favorite.
April 4th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Brian –
You certainly are not the only one who wishes Cobra never left the band. Back in the day when I was an aspiring drummer and I first heard The Appleseed Cast, I was completely mesmerized by Josh’s drumming. It was so inventive, creative, and fresh for me, and was what really drew me into the band. I cherish the albums that he was on. No matter what the dynamics of the band were when he left, the fact that he left to go to medical school is admirable and should say a lot about this guy, and possibly his drumming style. Josh’s leaving left a huge hole in the band a large collection of songs that I felt would be intimidating for any drummer to learn.
That could of been the end for these guys, but they persevered and moved on which I was more than happy about. When Nate jumped on, I was less than thrilled, having been familiar with The Casket Lottery’s work. Nate is a pretty heavy drummer and didn’t feel like his style would fit well with the sound of this band. In the end, I do like Peregrine and give a lot of credit to Nate. When I hear songs like Sunlit and Ascending, I wonder if he was trying to play like Josh…?
Moving on, I happened to run into Marc Young, their old bassist in a bar in Chicago, and chatted him up for a bit. I believe he was working on Sargamatha at the time with ASC, but had announced he was leaving the band to go back to school too. I asked him how he felt after Baruth left, whom I felt was such a creative and inventive drummer. The way I remember it, and I should note that I had several drinks in me, was that Marc played down Josh’s drumming style, which I was taken aback by… Anyway, maybe there was some friction with Josh in the end, who knows?
Anyway, now here were are after Nate and Marc left the band, and these guys come out with Sagarmatha. I love this album and I am deeply appreciative that these guys continue to make music. I agree that any song that Josh’s puts his sticks to would compliment the songs much better than ANY drummer out there, that is what makes him so unique. You just don’t run into drummers like Josh everyday.
Maybe some day Josh will come back after his pursuits in medicine. Until then, I will follow and support these guys, because my ASC collection of music is one of my most cherished possessions which I hope continues to grow as we all get older.
Anyways, it was nice to find someone else as appreciative of Josh’s work as I am.
Oh yeah, if you couldn’t tell, these guys are STILL my all-time favorite!
Cheers man.
April 30th, 2009 at 7:58 am
When I saw these guys tour Peregrine I got the same response from them about Josh’s drumming style. They played it down but said that everybody remarks about Josh’s drumming to them. Chris reluctantly told me the reason Josh left was because he would hear through friends that Josh would brag that if ASC didn’t work out he would go to med school and after a while they turned round and told him to do just that.
Mare Vitalis. Is probably the most life changing album I have ever heard. I also LOVE the Low Level Owl Albums. I have a promo poster for those albums that I cherish. The new album is an admirable effort to be fair. I think they have suffered in a similar way as …Trail of Dead have since they dropped their original bass player. Good but just not the same.
Still that wave of good ‘emo’ band or whatever you want to call them just seem to have gone. I hope another band like atd-i come around and shake shit up again.
November 16th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
The biggest difference I see in this album and previous efforts is in the production characteristics. The drum sounds on this album have a production quality that I don’t like as much as those from Low Level Owl, or Peregrine. The previous drum tones were more natural, and sounded like they were in the room with you – the tones were more organic. These drum tones sound too slick and overproduced. I’m not talking about the delays or the electronic drums so much as the ones that are Don’t get me wrong, after only a couple listens through, I like the album, and they are still one of my favorite bands, but I’d be really curious to here hear these songs with an entirely new mix, and see if they really grabbed me like previous albums did.