When it comes to the avant-garde and truly adventurous in heavy music, and hardcore punk and metal in particular, we don’t think anyone is as crucial and ahead of their time as ICEBURN, at least in terms of exploring jazz and avant garde music within the post-hardcore framework. And we don’t think any band has ever left more hardcore kids baffled than ICEBURN. Beginning as a skatecore outfit in Salt Lake City in the late 1980′s/early 90′s, ICEBURN would eventually evolve into a highly cerebral, totally crushing (but not always heavy) avant-jazz ensemble that could still whip out a massive hardcore riff or sludgy metallic breakdown in the middle of their sprawling compositions. We’re not sure if the band is even still around, as it has been a few years since anything new came out from them, but for now we are working on getting their entire back catalog stocked at Crucial Blast for anyone who missed out in the 90′s when much of this stuff first hit oxygen. Land of Wind and Ghosts is the last CD released by Iceburn (under the Iceburn Collective moniker), and is a two guitar/saxophone/percussion improv behemoth recorded live with additional “bass ghosts” added later by Adam lane. The group crawl through 72 minutes of long stretches of ambient drones, near silence, and tense free-clatter that converge with floods of crushing noise guitar and heavy amplifier drone, and eruptive battlejazz that lumbers forward like a herd of honking prehistoric beasts, suggesting something similiar to a fusion of Peter Brotzmann, Earth, and Arthur Doyle and The Blue Humans imbued with a vague Eastern spirituality. The CD comes in a hand assembled 6″ x 8″ manila envelope with color art attached to the front and back, containing the disc and an eight part essay written by by Richard Gilman-Opalsky of Countdown to Putsch that explores the band’s journey from post-hardcore icons to their immersion in free jazz and modern composition. Excellent avant/improv/hardcore/drone, recommended.
Crucial Blast
July 18, 2016