Carved Into Roses

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EDITOR'S PICK

Total Tracks: 6   Total Length: 60:52

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Christopher R. Weingarten

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Christopher R. Weingarten is a freelance music writer living in Brooklyn, whose work can currently be seen in The Village Voice, Spin, Revolver, NYLON, and much...more »

04.22.11
Skullflower, Carved Into Roses
2000 | Label: VHF / Revolver

Like My Bloody Valentine without anything safely described as "pretty," Skullflower were a trance-inducing skyscraper of sound built on feedback, overtones, scrapes, drone and general unpleasantness. The most popular of the noise bands congregating around England's Broken Flag label in the late'80s, Skullfower made an unholy improvisational racket around Black Sabbath riffs and Krautrock textures. One of their most free-form outings, Carved Into Roses hypnotically drones into psychedelic abandon for ten minutes at a time, and features guest yelping from Whitehouse's Philip Best.

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pretty brilliant

sphere777

dreamy dissonance for a surreal world. similar to This Is Skullflower and very unlike the power-noise-metal of the band's other releases. if you thought EVOL was mindblowing, slap this on and feel your neurons overload.

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pretty painful

bikefridaywalter

skullflower is all about dichotomy. this album is no exception: a gorgeous tapestry of meandering textures and tones that just so happen to be largely composed of guitar noise. a sax finds its way into the mix every now and then. the only less than enthralling track is "silver glove puppet." philiip best's vocals, which are often rather trance-enducing here are distracting. the fact that it sounds like a rather crappy live recording doesn't help either. this is a rather minor complaint, though. the album's a gem.

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