(((((OPENmind/SATURATEDbrain))))): ROSETTA

Monday, 21 September 2015

ROSETTA

Band: ROSETTA
Genres: Metal For Astronauts / Post-Rock / Post-Hardcore / Post-Metal / Doom / Ambient / Noise / Drone / Space Rock
Related artists: Rise Of Because, Fraud, Junius, City Of Ships, North, Memories Of A Dead Man, Mykado and Zodiak.
Country: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA
Years Active: 2003-present
Song: "In & Yo / Dualities of the Way"
Album: "The Anaesthete"
Year: 2013
Label(s): Self Release / Level Plane Records / Translation Loss Records / E-Vinyl / Radar Swarm / Denovali Records / Vega Vinyl / Cavity Records / Debemur Morti Productions / War Crime Recordings / Tokyo Jupiter Records / Golden Antenna Records / Init Records / The Mylene Sheath / Bird's Robe Records
This post's artist is from the August 2015 Mix. This is track #3.
You can download: the September Mix#9 right here or get the new October 2015 Mix#10 here.
For fans of: Cult Of Luna, AmenRa, Monuments Collapse, Isis, Nous Etions, Tephra, Amber, Light Bearer, Downfall Of Gaia, Envy, Milanku, Buried Inside, The Alaskan, Kraken, Meshugga, Intronaut, Lentic Waters, Anodes, Old Man Gloom, Zozobra, Knut, Old Soul, From A Second Story Window and Cave In.

Self-dubbed "metal for astronauts" post-hardcore/metal behemoths ROSETTA are a must for any fan of the above "ffo" section. They took the epic instru-metal with vocals and added heavy texturing and space-rock ambiance to the package, which went over very well and continues to do so at the time of this writing, September 21st, 2015. Although I'm a pretty big fan of the band's catalogue, ROSETTA seems to have a lot of songs that don't do too much for me, but the select few that do floor me every time. For the first few years they would include some phenomenal tracks scattered amongst semi-decent tracks but as of about 2013, in my opinion, they've harnessed their true sound and are refining their work to include less and less fillers.

As mentioned above, the newer material, 'Quintessential Ephemera' (2015) and 'The Anaesthete' are powerhouses. 'Quintessential Ephemera' in particular has some clean singing which is welcome and a little odd at the same time, although "Untitled I" is the cream of the crop in that regard. "Untitled II" brings everything back to typical ROSETTA fashion without the sparsely included vocal melodies and peaks as one of the band's best songs to date with "Untitled III" and "Untitled "VII" coming in close behind. Also released in 2015 was 'Rosetta: Audio/Visual Original Score' which is a completely instrumental soundtrack that could easily be used in a plethora of different movies. This band from Philly is obviously a very talented bunch, although this soundtrack doesn't do anything for me.

From my limited ROSETTA experience online I've gathered that 'The Galilean Satellites' is their most revered album, but I personally thought 2013's 'The Anaesthete' was their strongest outing. Simply put, they have gotten better, more consistent and have been able to straddle each end of the musical spectrum like fucking champs from this release onward and I love it. There are two songs in particular that absolutely demolish the listener. The first being my personal favourite "In and Yo / Dualities of the Way" which is unbelievable with galaxies of spacey riffs that bounce around and collide like atoms. At 1:46 the song detonates like a massive star and shoots seeds into space via those incredibly amazing guitar riffs. The song later gets pretty Old Man Gloomy at 4:49 when things condense to the point of becoming a black hole. "Myo / The Miraculous" is one of the shortest bursts that the band has ever concocted. In 3:02 they go ballistic and utterly destroy everything in their path. The pummeling breakdowns coincide with heavy as fuck vocals that never dip into growly territory, thank science. A truly harrowing experience.

From the band's lone Level Plane release, the split with Balboa comes "Clavius". This combines drone with nifty guitarwork that peaks just before four minutes before being distorted and stretched to Cult Of Luna and Downfall Of Gaia-esque vastness. After expending what I assumed to be all of the energy in the song it slides into a slow, instrumental lull before a cataclysmic explosion at 9 minutes that fucking makes this song. Hot damn that is some heavy and commanding shit. "Lift (part 1)" is one of ROSETTA's most playful and uncharacteristic songs which, for the most part, just sounds a lot more optimistic in its sound and sounds like Isis more than anything else. The opener from 'The Galilean Satellites' "Departe" begins with a sexy bassline that paints the backdrop instantly. The spacey guitars chime in with the drums that are obviously leaning towards something massive in the future. The foreshadowing becomes redundant two minutes in as the song truly departs during liftoff. I love the bellowing vocals that careen to screams quite quickly.

Truly, metal for astronauts.

editor's note: I've been rewatching Cosmos. A strange coincidence.

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DISCOGRAPHY

2005 - The Galilean Satelites 2xcd/2x12"LP

2006 - Balboa split cd/2x12"LP

2007 - Wake/Lift cd/2x12"LP
2007 - Cleansing Undertones of Wake/Lift cdLP

2010 - A Determinism of Morality cd/2x12"LP
2010 - 3-Way split (w/East Of The Wall & Year Of No Light) cd/1.5x12"LP
2010 - Rosetta / Restorations 12"EP

2011 - Junius split cd/12"EP

2012 - City Of Ships split cdEP

2013 - The Anaesthete cd/2x12"LP (stream/donate/download here)

2014 - Like Flies to Flame cd/12"EP

2015 - Quintessential Ephemera cd/2x12"LP (stream/donate/download here)
2015 - Rosetta: Audio/Visual Original Score digitalLP (stream/donate/download here)

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(2013) ROSETTA - "In & Yo / Dualities of the Way" (from 'The Anaesthete')