I’ll admit that there are times where I only check out an album because a band has an extremely clever or unique band name. That is how I originally stumbled upon ‘Show Me a Dinosaur’ , a three-piece from Saint Petersberg, Russia that is somewhat of a hidden gem in the post-rock realm in that they have very little following online. For those of you Geography buffs, Saint Petersberg is located near the Baltic Sea, just over 100 miles from both Estonia and Finland and is the fourth largest city in Russia. I decided to point that out because if you follow this blog you’d know there is some outright ridiculously talented post-rock bands coming out of Russia (Jakarta Project, Psychotree, Aesthesys to name a couple) and with their latest release ‘Dust’, Show Me A Dinosaur put their names right back in the mix as one of the many up and coming Russian post-rock bands you NEED to check out.
My first exposure to Show Me A Dinosaur came in early 2012 thanks to my buddy Will Hough. I quickly grew attached to their 2011 album ‘Evolvent’, particularly the song “You Can’t Find This Place on Google Maps”, which was funny to me because at the time I was actually working for Google Maps. Not to get too side tracked, the album was a blend of spacious atmospheric environments and raw unfiltered guitar work. Although a little bit rough around the edges, the album impressed the hell out of me and remained a mainstay on my ipod. I could tell this was a band on the precipice of putting everything together and really cementing a name for themselves in the post-rock world.
The time is now and ‘Dust’ is that album that should garner them much deserved attention. There is nothing more beautiful than watching a band grow up before our eyes and that’s exactly what Show Me a Dinosaur has done here with this seven track 45 minute showcase of focused power meeting technical prowess. The band has cashed in it’s atmospheric offerings for a heavier post-metal driven sound that comes equipped with adjectives such as dark, brooding and at times overbearing. It’s a transition that doesn’t come as too much of shocker and certainly isn’t dramatic by any means. Clear and obvious parallels between their new sound found on this album and their heavier material on ‘Evolvent’ can be made relatively easily.
“Man Made God” is just a wicked opener that gets straight to the “We Ain’t Fucking Around” point. From the opening seconds you instantly realize this isn’t the same band who opened their last album with a digitized beat amidst random samples and rattling background guitar. A minute in and the band is already teasing double bass pedal action as dual guitars create a static wall. There is something off-kilter and bizarre about this track’s middle ground, and I really like it. We’re offered samples pointing out the evil doings of God as pointed out in the bible. Completely ignoring all musical aspects of this track, just the idea of starting off an album with a track titled “Man Made God” knowing that it’s a subject that would draw controversy and ire is ballsy. I love it.
“Drawing The Line” is undoubtedly my favorite track on the album, as it takes samples regarding the idea of playing god from Jurassic Park, one of my favorite Childhood movies (Behind ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ and ‘The Breakfast Club’), and mixes it with this sort of eerie backdrop of atmospheric guitar wailing and build up. The end result is a monumental build up with a huge pay off as guitars spiral and cymbals crash for what seems like an eternity. This song is the blueprint of everything that makes a truly epic Post-Rock track and is flawlessly executed by a band that could easily be mistaken for any of the genre’s top talents. I would say it’s comparable to the likes of This Will Destroy You but we all know they would never soil their works with samples this rad.
For what it’s worth I’m not a huge fan of the vocals found on the album’s title track and ‘Rain’ , which both close out the album as the sixth and seventh tracks. I’m not going to knock the album too much for the vocals because they’re somewhat short and even after nearly a dozen listens I find them unintelligible. Even though they technically within the realm of what the band is trying to accomplish with ‘Dust’, I’d like to see them drift away from vocals going forward. Vocals simply detract from the overall experience of their powerhouse performance and are definitely an unneeded element that I fear could do more harm than good. They get a pass this time, but next time I’m not sure I can be as forgiving.
The emergence of ‘Dust’ is the first true surprise for me in the world of Postrockstar this year. I’ll admit I hadn’t been following the band in recent months and had no idea this album was on the horizon. I sincerely hope this is the album that really grabs the attention of the post-rock world. I cannot express my happiness with how this Russian powerhouse has evolved over a short span of time. They have done one hell of a job creating a very loud album chalked full of synergetic overtones and epicness. It would be a shame if this effort doesn’t fall into the hands of the masses.
Oh and while we’re on post-rock bands with dinosaur themed names, your move ‘You Bred Raptors?’ .
tags: rock free instrumental post-metal post-rock postrock Saint Petersburg
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