365 Days of Metal: Not the Bird, Nor the Brief

Day 6

Pelican - What We All Come To Need

Band Origin: Chicago, IL, USA
Genre: Sludge Metal / Progressive / Insert Genre Here
Label: Southern Lord Records
Running Time: 51 minutes
Release Date: October 27, 2009

Best Part: Start to finish - there's nothing bad here.

Favorite Tracks: Ephemeral, Specks of Light, and The Creeper

Grade: 4

---------

What We All Come To Need in 20 words or less:

Dark yet energetic instrumental metal that sounds great whether you're hard at work, or just looking to unwind.

The Band:

Pelican is a four member instrumental band who pride themselves on being difficult to tag with a specific genre. Where some would call them progressive rock, others would call them post-metal or sludge metal. Because of the bands evolution from a more slow paced and building sound to a slightly quicker paced energetic band, they have made the genre distinction more difficult for their fans. The instrumental nature of the band also allows them the flexibility to write long and spectacular songs. As for being a strictly instrumental band, Trevor de Brauw is noted for saying that: "We're not instrumental by design - we just didn't know how to put vocals in our music and for it to sound right."

Pelican's other releases include: Pelican - EP (2001), Australasia (2003), March into the Sea - EP (2005), The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw (2005), City of Echoes (2007), Pink Mammoth - EP (2007), and Ephemeral - EP (2009)

Jay's Take on The What We All Come To Need:

Pelican has long been one of my favorite instrumental bands. What We All Come To Need is an album that Pelican recorded on a relatively tight schedule after switching record labels. Because of this there are some distinct differences in the sound from their previous - and in my opinion, best record, City of Echoes. Not as dark and grimy as City of Echoes was in some areas, What We All Come To Need still manages to grasp onto that gloomy sound that Pelican has always had at their core. This record has more energy which lends itself well with the overall mood of the record. And keeping in mind Trevor de Brauw's quote, it's also interesting to note that this record also features the first song in their history to incorporate vocals, on the song Final Breath. Allen Epley's vocals are not at all unwelcome, fitting well with the atmosphere of the track to close out this record.

Sample of the Day:



- J