4 out of 5

Label: VHF

Producer: Russel Smith (Recorder… unless that’s like, the instrument Recorder… which is very possible… in which case this was probably produced by Matthew Bower.)

‘Carved Into Roses’ opening track, ‘Pipe Dream’ is either sequenced in the best possible way or the worst possible way.  With music like Skullflower produces – noise, drone, feedback – you’re not often going to get proper lead-ins or fade outs; every track is 12-minutes long, so there’s not a concluding opus.  You dig the style or you don’t or you’re curious.  But ‘Pipe Dream’ is, in my opinion, the ‘weakest’ track out of the six here because its not as representative of the abrasiveness to be found deeper into the album, the sound swooshing into to, yes, a lot of noise, but a sort of glittering wash of (maybe) keys that would work with some of Bower’s other projects like Total or Sunroof!.  It’s also the only track to have a… hm… discordant element doesn’t sound exactly proper, since the whole thing could be seen as rather chaotic, but there are some garbled, electronic vocals dropped atop of things that gives the song a different flavor, and not quite as purposeful sounding (like we have some leftover effects so go ahead and put them here).  Is it a bad track?  No.  But compared to what follows – blessing – get it out of the way so the rest of the album is seamless (in relation to itself, heh), or curse – taint your expectations for the disc.

Whatever, ’cause the mad jazz fushion of ‘Rose Wallpaper’ will wash that away, or perhaps the better use of vocals – screamed, reverbed to shit, hovering somewhere between guitar loops – on ‘Shiny Birds of Doom.’  While none of the tracks exactly have a rhythm, there’s normally a sense of drive to them.  Showing awareness of this, track 4’s ‘Silver Glove Puppet’ stutter steps the whole affair, guitar and drums continually escaping the mix, as though the song is re-starting and re-starting for nine minutes while using other drone effects to keep you glued in.  ‘Metallurgical King’ is the genius song on here, for me, bringing back some of the jazz skronk but almost working its madness in a hazy memory of a song while whatever noise the team conjures whooshes on atop.  And things end appropriately with the loud GE4050.

So again, ‘Roses’ won’t change your mind if you’re not a fan of this genre.  However, at a pitch a bit less freaked out than Sunroof! or Vibra and some time before Skullflower would go all-out feedback assault, it’s a pretty excellent introductory or transition album.  Moving past that nonsense, if noise and drone are already checked ‘Yes’, this is prime Bower offering, strong, confident, risky and yet rounded, viewable as an album and not just cuts of improv.