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atsonicpark · 12.20.2008, 08:23 PM

I have heard well over 100 Wolf Eyes releases... I was pretty fanatical about them at some point and had a notepad file on my computer with a list of every album I'd heard and every album I still needed to hear. At some point, probably around hearing HELLOWEEN HOLOCAUSTS (which is over 2 hours of halloween "scary sounds" tapes through distortion pedals; funny stuff, but........), I lost interest big time. They're not consistent, and some of their releases are absolutely AWFUL.

The thing is, some of their releases are pretty damn decent! They often will stumble onto something really interesting. I think all their "big" releases are worth checking out (except, as batrelease noted, the self-titled album, which mostly doesn't even sound like them anyway); Dead Hills, Slicer, Burned Mind, etc. The only one I LOVE, though, is the Black Vomit collab. I agree with them wanting to document the evolution of their band and so on, and there's nothing wrong with that; plenty of bands do that... but by exercising no quality control whatsoever, they've pretty much made it impossible to separate the good from the bad. And even hardcore Wolf Eyes fans -- I knew a guy from Michigan who owned or had CD-R copies of every release ever up to 2005 -- seem to admit that half of their discography is, well... uh... inconsistent. I will say, though, that judging from the albums I've heard that they've released in the past few years (they seem to be releasing less stuff nowadays), I think they're actually kinda getting better. Can't say that about most noise groups.

.....They're definitely an important noise band, but I think their side and related projects are actually usually more interesting than Wolf Eyes themselves. I dunno. A lot of their releases usually just fall into the "oh, that's cool that they did that; they just rubbed a microphone against a cinder block and put it through 3 flanger pedals at different settings" for me. Conceptually interesting stuff but doesn't really make me ever want to break it out again.

Except Black Vomit. That's the one.

12.20.2008, 08:23 PM	#91
atsonicpark invito al cielo Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 28,843	I have heard well over 100 Wolf Eyes releases... I was pretty fanatical about them at some point and had a notepad file on my computer with a list of every album I'd heard and every album I still needed to hear. At some point, probably around hearing HELLOWEEN HOLOCAUSTS (which is over 2 hours of halloween "scary sounds" tapes through distortion pedals; funny stuff, but........), I lost interest big time. They're not consistent, and some of their releases are absolutely AWFUL. The thing is, some of their releases are pretty damn decent! They often will stumble onto something really interesting. I think all their "big" releases are worth checking out (except, as batrelease noted, the self-titled album, which mostly doesn't even sound like them anyway); Dead Hills, Slicer, Burned Mind, etc. The only one I LOVE, though, is the Black Vomit collab. I agree with them wanting to document the evolution of their band and so on, and there's nothing wrong with that; plenty of bands do that... but by exercising no quality control whatsoever, they've pretty much made it impossible to separate the good from the bad. And even hardcore Wolf Eyes fans -- I knew a guy from Michigan who owned or had CD-R copies of every release ever up to 2005 -- seem to admit that half of their discography is, well... uh... inconsistent. I will say, though, that judging from the albums I've heard that they've released in the past few years (they seem to be releasing less stuff nowadays), I think they're actually kinda getting better. Can't say that about most noise groups. .....They're definitely an important noise band, but I think their side and related projects are actually usually more interesting than Wolf Eyes themselves. I dunno. A lot of their releases usually just fall into the "oh, that's cool that they did that; they just rubbed a microphone against a cinder block and put it through 3 flanger pedals at different settings" for me. Conceptually interesting stuff but doesn't really make me ever want to break it out again. Except Black Vomit. That's the one. __________________
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