Controlled Bleeding - Gilded Shadows

Released
1997

Label
Hypnotic

Reviewed by
Michael C. Lund

Contact
Controlled Bleeding
54 Locust St.
Massapequa
New York 11758

Hypnotic Recordings
(European Office)
Sandholtvej 2B
2650 Hvidovre
Denmark

Visit

8726 S. Sepulveda
Ste. D-82
Los Angeles
California 90045

Last Edit/Update
01 February, 1998

Controlled Bleeding

GILDED SHADOWS

Track Listing

1. Uncertain Sorrow
(Stalker Mix)
2. Removing the Veil
(Thrust Mix)
3. Stillbirth
(Metalic Mix)
4. The Deep Arch
(Blind Jazz Mix)
5. Fire Inside
(Slow Dub Mix)
6. Gilded Shadows
(Afterglow parts 1-3)
7. Lover's Remorse
(Extended Dub/Jazz Mix)
8. "Untitled"*

* hidden track

          "This music is meant to be played at high volume."
          The sound of Controlled Bleeding today is worlds away from the explorations into cacophony and noise that characterized their first releases fifteen years ago, but the sincerity and insistence upon the importance of 'sound' in and of itself is still there.
          Gilded Shadows consists of seven extended tracks that together constitute one long voyage into a strange land of sonic beauty. The arrangements are deeply melodic and harmonious in the spirit of their recent double-CD (Inanition), and the rhythm sections have jazzy undertones that are reflected in the subtitles to a number of the songs. Core members Paul Lemos and Joe Papa are joined on this release by Trang, who wrote and performs the majority of the lyrics, while Papa and Lemos restrict themselves to back-up chorals.
          The vocals by Trang -- apart from the title track all performed in some Asian language -- can hardly be praised too highly, and neither can the weaving compositions of Papa and Lemos, which constantly flow, envelop and swirl around Trang's voice like some liquid stream of sound. Tracks like "Uncertain Sorrow," "Lover's Remorse" and especially "Fire Inside" contain great melodic sweep, beauty, mystique, and, above all, a cathartic quality that stands far above the generic melancholy sobbing of so many other bands these days. Gilded Shadows has a spiritual depth imbedded in its harmonic structures that elude description, as it disappears between the notes of the arrangements and the words of the songs. In the manner of much of the music by Swans (whose music Gilded Shadows does not otherwise resemble), this CD is an immensely uplifting listening experience.

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