Sub Plot by I'm Being Good

This album is pretty fucking obscure. I came across it around a year ago somewhere and it's been at the back of my mind ever since. Despite the MSPA-reminiscint album art, this actually pre-dates MSPA's creation by several years. It's generally very hard to find any info about this thing, but from what I've been able to gather, it released on May 5th 2001, very little people bought it, and the few places I've seen mention it have heralded it as an underrated forgotten gem. And when I say few, I mean a few. A YouTube upload of a handful of the songs and some listings on the band's website are most of what I could find. I've only gotten around to listening to it in full today and whoooooo boy is it a doozy. The album opens with Angels On Our Shoulders, a 7 minute long track (long run times are common on this album) that shows the slacker rock side of the album, but also at times shows hints of the metal influences. It serves as an excellent, relaxed introduction to the sound of the album, and throughout the rest of the tracks it'll begin to lean more into the metal side of things. SPEAKING OF LEANING MORE INTO THE METAL INFLUENCES, the second track on the album, Kill Him With War Savings, is very metal. What else can I even say about it? It's an amazing track, possibly my favorite on the album. A good ol' grungy headbangfest. Joust is a slower, more melodic track than KHWWS at times, but at others matching in it's intensity. [INSERT WHATEVER THE NAME OF THE LEAD VOCALIST OF THIS BAND IS]'s vocals are at peak form in this song. Ultimately very representative of the album as a whole in ways I'll touch on more in the conclusion. Now the next track, He Has Unborn Eyes On Long Tinsel Stalks, has a slow, nigh-ambient introduction, and it doesn't until it really kicks off at around the 2:30 mark. Forget what I said about Kill Him With War Savings being my favorite track, this is the real shit. It's distorted vocals that quickly turn into incomprehensible gibberish are guided by the instrumentation. A Doom Metal song through and through. Kinda thing I'd kill a man while listening to. The second to last track, as well as the third longest, Silent Spring best reflects the indie rock/metal mash the album provides. There's not much I can say about it I haven't said already about the other songs. Finally, the end of the album. The longest song on the album, clocking in at just over 11 and a half minutes, there's a lot to talk about. Solar System Of Blood (For Ringo) (presumably referring to British rock legend and ex-Beatle Ringo Starr) starts off silently, before the instruments slowly awaken, revealing a calm introduction, the highly exaggerated raspy vocals complimenting the metal melody very nicely. It's not until halfway through for the song to give just a taste of heavier tones, before abruptly reverting back to that chill, stoner sound. Eventually it dips into rampant light tapping on the drums and alarm-like single-note guitar playing. It continues this more avant-garde approach until the very end. Now I am incredibly tired, and desperately need sleep, so I'll leave this as it is for now and continue it come the morn. I know nothing about metal and am seriously sleep-deprived so apologies if I got anything wrong during this. :smiley_rap:

ADDENDUM FROM NEOCAFE - Some corrections I feel like I should make. I call the album "slacker-rock + metal" a couple of times but it's more like a combination of slacker-rock and emo that is then infused with metal. I feel like I didn't do Silent Spring enough justice in the original post so I'll talk about it a bit here. It's an amazing track filled with some really great segments and lines. Most notably what is in my opinion the second best line on the album: "There is a cartoon horse; on the stairs of your house." Utter gold.