Dissolve 'Caveman Of The Future' CD

"Poughkeepsie, NY's Dissolve originally recorded "Caveman of the Future" way back in 2000, at which time it was supposed to be released by M.I.A. Records. Sadly the label closed its doors and the album was shelved while the band carried on for a year or two, playing shows and trying to find a home for the record, but it never happened. Apparently they never really broke up, though, they just kind of went away – playing a couple of shows in 2004 and 2005, and now playing a couple of shows to celebrate this long overdue release. I assume that means they're not really looking to do new material, but that's cool: It just makes me sick that there's so much unheard music out there just sitting around collecting dust like this, so it's very fucking cool that Trip Machine Laboratories made this happen eight years after the fact!

I actually wasn't into these guys in the 90's when they were fully active, but that's not because I disliked 'em, I just never really encountered their material. I've heard the name many times over the years, and have since heard some of their earlier work on compilations and such, but this is my first true exposure to their work. I'm sure this is all around more developed than the band's prior releases, but there's definitely a nice foundation of the crushing and rhythmically-centered pre-"dirty word" metalcore of the mid- to late-90's, based around thick power chords and shouted, screamed, and half-spoken vocals (some of which sort of remind me of V.O.D. back in the day). But then there are some pretty whacked out types of noisy, discordant guitar textures and leads going on that really twist things up a bit – giving the material a more metal-influenced style, but not one that really comes across as particularly "metal", you know? We're not talkin' tremolo picking and blast beats or tech'd out note flurries. There's a very fuckin' solid rhythm section (though the bass work is admittedly hard to pick out, granted that doesn't really detract from the listen), with lots of jazzy cymbal work and shifts from straightforward patterns to much more colorful fare. So there's certainly some complexity in there, but… despite similarities to select acts from comparable scenes within that general 1990 – 2000 time frame… the end result here has a weirdly unusual sort of aesthetic hovering over it, and I can't really put my finger on it. And that's not a bad thing! I mean, anyone who's been into this kind of music over the years will hear familiarities in this material, but I think you'll agree that (at least on this album) Dissolve just had something a little more… peculiar going on. Very interesting…" - Aversionline.com