乐队列表 Grunge Arkayan The Marsh Chapel Experiment

When I first greedily opened my care package from Australia’s own Arkayan and read their included biography; I chuckled a bit at the included photo of the band attired in Spaniard bandito guise including fake mustaches (excluding one who sports a fair beard already). I slipped the CD out of its slip sleeve cover and inserted it in my player and wow! What a wall of sound, big guitars, a rhythm section that draws you in with its subtleties, quirky nuances, time changes, and voices of angels! Jon Mazzardis has an amazingly good and quite unique vocal styling that has a very listenable clean lead with a ton of range and dash or two of almost Screamo. Then when you layer the clean harmonies of Rachelina Santella the outcome is staggering, dare I say brilliant?

I dug a bit deeper into the net on the band, after thoroughly enjoying the EP a few dozen times and I saw references likening them to a progressive rock fueled “Tool” like grunge band. I get the comparison and during some of the extended jam elements, Arkayan, certainly reminds you of bands of that ilk. But I really hear a ton of Helmet and influences of another amazing band The Pursuit of Happiness.

Standout track for me is track 1, Ganglion, what a killer tune. Ganglion is a real great example of what Arkayan sounds like musically. With a nice mix of heavy guitar and vocal harmonies that sets the standard for the next 4 tracks, including the lead off single Scarecrow (which is another great song, my second favorite). Chundle! is a really cool instrumental jam piece that solidifies to the listener what a truly consistent and talented band Arkayan is.

Arkayan should appeal to anyone who enjoys solid musicianship with really well constructed songs. Songs that have meaning and take the listener someplace and I can’t stress enough the enjoyment I got from Jon and Rachelina’s vocals, truly some great talent there that deserve some appreciation from the masses. I can’t wait to dig back in the bands catalog and hear their 2010 release “Away from the World”. Rumor has it that a 3rd release is in the works and I for one am highly anticipating it.