Giant Squid
| Giant Squid | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| origin | Sacramento , United States |
| Genre (s) | Sludge , Doom Metal , Progressive Metal |
| founding | 2002 |
| resolution | 2015 |
| Last occupation | |
| Aaron John Gregory | |
| Bryan Beeson | |
Cello , vocals |
Jackie Perez Gratz |
| Scott Sutton | |
Keyboard , vocals |
Andy Southard |
| former members | |
Drums |
Zack Farwell |
Drums |
Chris Lyman |
Drums |
Mike Conroy |
Drums |
Jason Divencenzo |
Drums |
Dave Reynolds |
Electric guitar |
Bill Hughes |
Vocals, electric guitar, keyboard |
Aurielle Zeitler |
Giant Squid ( English : Riesenkalmare ) was an American doom metal band that was founded in Sacramento in 2002 by Aaron John Gregory .
history
Tyrannosaurus Records
Giant Squid was founded in Sacramento in 2002 by Aaron John Gregory, Bryan Beeson, Dave Reynolds, Bill Hughes and Aurielle Zeitler. The band members were previously active together under the names Koi and Namor. While Namor was still a first self-titled EP, which contained the two pieces Revolution in the Water and Ampullae of Lorenzini . Gregory sent copies of the EP, limited to 100 copies, to various producers and labels.
Billy Anderson ( Neurosis , High on Fire , Mr. Bungle , The Melvins ) then agreed to produce the following album Metridium Field for the band's own label Tyrannosaurus Records. Giant Squid recorded the first album in 2003 with Jason Divincenzo, who had replaced Dave Reynolds as drummer and Andy Southard, who had been added as keyboardist. In order to use a name more fundamental to the band concept than that of the comic figure of the same name , the band renamed itself Giant Squid during the recording. As another reason for the renaming, Gregory cited the fear of getting into a legal conflict with Marvel Comics . After the name change and still during the recording process, Gregory's father was killed in a motorcycle accident, whereupon the release date of the album was postponed significantly.
After the album, which was dedicated to Gregory's father, was released on Tyrannosaurus Records, the band began to write new material and, after another change of drummer to Mike Conroy, played the concept EP Monster in the Creek . Giant Squid released the EP, the theme of the shark attacks on the New Jersey coast from 1916, as a limited CD-R.
The End Records
In 2003 Billy Anderson produced the album Like Sheep Led to Slaughter by the band Crisis for The End Records. Anderson gave the band's guitarist a copy of Metridium Field , who then passed the CD on to an employee of the label, who ultimately passed the CD on to the label's founder, Andreas Katsambas. Katsambas signed the band, but showed no interest in the new, less harsh material.
“We just didn't like the way“ Metridium Field ”sounded anymore, so at least we wanted to give them [The End Records] an offer to remix it since they weren't that interested in“ Monster In The Creek ”. Unfortunately, the hard drive was gone and we said: fuck it! We have all these new people in the band. Let's take it up again. This is how “Metridium Fields” came about, the album that most of us know us for and that was well received by the critics. "
The EP Monster In The Creek , on the other hand, remained a collector's item limited to 400 copies, which was mainly sold in Sacramento. Andy Southard also left the band, without whom, according to Gregory, most of the pieces on the EP would not be possible. The recordings for Metridium Fields were again produced by Billy Anderson. The album, released on August 24, 2006, received mostly positive reviews and brought the band international fame. In the months leading up to its release, the band performed with Isis , The Gathering, and Agalloch . Aaron Gregory and Aurielle Zeitler, who had married in the meantime, separated in November 2006, after which Aurielle Gregory left the band. As a replacement, Jackie Perez Gratz from Amber Asylum could be won, who, in addition to female vocals, also brought the cello into the band as an instrument. With Perez but again without a drummer, a split single and the song Octopus were released as a contribution to Like Black Holes In The Sky: A Tribute to Syd Barrett, a tribute album for Syd Barrett (and his song Octopus ). Both releases were also produced by Billy Anderson. After The End Records of the band after a two-and-a-half year tour suggested more live appearances instead of a new album, the band and label separated.
Translation loss
The band was based in San Francisco , where Gregory worked as a professional diver for the Aquarium of the Bay . The new drummer was Chris Lyman, who also worked at the Aquarium of the Bay . With this new line-up, another album was recorded in 2008 under the name The Ichthyologist , this time with Matt Bayles as producer. Bayles was Gregory's explicit preferred producer for the album due to his work on Oceanic and Leviathan . Giant Squid played the album with several guest musicians. Amber Asylum members Lorraine Rath, Kris Force and Cat Gratz as well as Karyn Crisis (Crisis) and Anneke van Giersbergen (The Gathering) took part in the recording . At the same time as the album, Gregory wanted to publish a graphic novel on The Ichthyologist . To this end, he contacted the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art in search of suitable artists, but did not find anything. Gregory, on the other hand, took part in courses at the school himself in 2009 and illustrated the comic himself, which appeared in 2011 with the vinyl version of the follow-up EP Cenotes .
In February 2009, Giant Squid released The Ichthyologist on their own label Tyrannosaurus Records, with a limited edition of 1000 copies. The first 50 pre-ordered issues were sent with a shark tooth each. The teeth were collected by Gregory himself at the Aquarium of the Bay . In the same year Giant Squid signed a contract with Translation Loss and released The Ichthyologist again, with new artwork designed by Sam Kieth .
The concept album tells the story of a marine biologist who finds himself alone on a beach after a shipwreck and gets lost in the sea. It is becoming increasingly dehumanized and develops various characteristics of a starfish . As an extension of this album, the EP Cenotes was released in 2011 . The EP, also produced by Bayles, takes up the concept of the previous album and continues the idea in the form of a child of the protagonist. The conceptual continuation was particularly influenced by the common child that Gregory and Gratz expected. This time Gregory took care of the design himself.
The band members, who now mostly live in Pacifica , did not appear live in the meantime and paused after the birth of their daughter from Gratz and Gregory. 2012 Aaron Gregory took up a study for a Bachelor of Arts as an illustrator at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and worked as an illustrator and cartoonist. In 2013 the staff of Translation Loss became aware of the EP Monster In The Creek and offered Giant Squid a re-release of the EP. Gregory re-mixed the EP and added live and demo recordings to the release as well as a DVD with corresponding bonus material. In addition, the design of the CD has been completely revised and a detailed accompanying text on the creation and history of the EP has been added. 2014 followed with Minoans, the last album of the group, which announced its breakup in July 2015. As a reason, Gregory gave the family obligations and the physical distance of the musicians. A reunion to play as a support act for Mastodon or at the Roadburn Festival , he did not rule out generally, but called these conditions, which would favor a reunion, unlikely.
concept
Aaron John Gregory, who wrote all of the lyrics, describes two fundamental core themes of the band. On the one hand the relationship between parents and their children, which is particularly included on the albums Metridium Fields and Cenotes , and on the other hand the direct examination of the sea as a habitat and the examination of the living beings that exist in it. While Gregory mainly draws on his own biographical experiences as the origin of the parent-child topic, he describes the nautical topics as a spiritual debate, which is also anchored in his biography. He uses both his own childhood and the experience of becoming a father in his preparation of the parent-child topic. The confrontation with the sea and its creatures also goes back to early childhood experiences and accompanies Gregory throughout his life. He describes both the films Jacques-Yves Cousteau and a small creek that ran behind his parents' house as the origin .
"I spent so much time looking at dragonfly larvae and snails and these weird little animals. I just couldn't believe all this alien life lived behind my house in the tiny creek. My obsession was exaggerated a thousand fold whenever I looked at a river or an ocean. It was just the massive amount of life in water that spurred my interest. "
“I've spent a lot of time looking at dragonfly larvae , snails and weird little animals. I just couldn't believe that all this strange life was living behind my house in that little tide. My obsession multiplied whenever I looked at a river or an ocean. It was just the immense extent of life in the water that spurred my interest. "
In addition to the early impressions of films by ocean researcher Jacques Cousteau seen together with his parents , Gregory names the possession of several saltwater aquariums as a child and teenager as further important childhood and adolescent memories. Later he took over the management of an aquarium business for tropical fish and studied biology at the American River College from 1997 to 2000. Up to the activity as a professional diver, the confrontation with the sea accompanies him up to the present. Meanwhile, Gregory does not limit himself to fascination and describes his relationship to the sea beyond that as spiritual .
“As long as you are not strictly religious, you have to accept the fact that all life comes from the sea. Because of this, all of our consciousness and the things that it creates, such as religion , love, spirituality, jealousy and all the other exciting, emotionally driven concepts we deal with, come from creatures (people) who came out of the sea are. If there was a God who created all of this (putting aside all that Bible rubbish about creation ), why did He start with the sea and its almost infinite variations? God - if he / she exists - just has to have gills, or at least fins. Are we really made in his image or are we actually an accident, an annoying by-product of his original oceanic concept? It looks like whales will then be the ultimate form of life - a culmination of all the incredible things in the ocean - and they could be smarter than us in ways we cannot understand. Maybe God or the great spirit is a whale? Once you stop thinking of the ocean as a huge body of water full of salt and smelly animals that can eat, sting, or bite you and see it in such a spiritual context, it gets pretty exciting. It's like looking at the stars and having to accept that the impossible exists - that is, infinity , as space cannot end. It's just too much to think about so we take it for granted and just pay our mortgage or have a coffee. When I sit on the ocean floor, out of sight of the surface, on the dark, cold bottom surrounded by seaweed, or on the lap of a reef and then look into the abyss, I feel as if I am right into the uterus of all existence on the See earth, the epitome of life as we understand it with our weak mind. "
style
At the beginning of their career Giant Squid played progressive sludge , after which the band was compared with well-known representatives of the genre such as Baroness , Kylesa and Mastodon . However, Giant Squid set themselves apart from the popular representatives of the genre through the oriental- inspired, bright vocals by Aaron Gregory, occasionally performed in " quarter tones ".
On later releases, the elements of hardcore punk decreased somewhat and the music was increasingly referred to as a mixture of doom metal , sludge and progressive rock with clear influences from oriental music and klezmer . The band uses various instruments that are rather unusual for rock and metal , such as cello , oboe , banjo or theremin .
Discography
- 2002: Namor ( EP , CD-R Tyrannosaurus Records limited to 100 copies , released as Namor)
- 2004: Metridium Field ( Album , Tyrannosaurus Records)
- 2005: Monster In The Creek (EP, CD-R Tyrannosaurus Records limited to 400 copies)
- 2006: Metridium Fields (Album, The End Records )
- 2007: Sutter's Fort ( split single with Grayceon , The End Records)
- 2009: The Ichthyologist (Album, Translation Loss )
- 2011: Cenotes (EP, Translation Loss)
- 2013: Monster In The Creek (Album, Translation Loss)
- 2014: Minoans (Album, Translation Loss)
Web links
- Giant squid at Discogs (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Aaron Gregory: GiantSquidLives. Giant Squid, archived from the original on March 27, 2012 ; accessed on August 13, 2014 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g JN: giant squids aaron gregory the metalsucks interview. Metal Sucks, accessed August 13, 2014 .
- ↑ a b c d e Aaron John Gregory: Monster in the Creek . Ed .: Translation Loss. 1st edition. Translation Loss, Pasadena 2013, pp. 11 - 13 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h D.L. MG: GIANT SQUID Interview. (No longer available online.) BlackMagazine, archived from the original on October 11, 2013 ; accessed on August 13, 2014 .
- ↑ Aaron John Gregory: Metridium Fields. Bandcamp, accessed August 13, 2014 .
- ↑ a b Ned Raggett: Metridium Fields. allmusic, accessed on August 13, 2014 .
- ↑ a b Mattybu: Metridium Fields. Metalstorm, accessed August 13, 2014 .
- ↑ Aaron John Gregory: Octopus. Bandcamp, accessed August 13, 2014 .
- ↑ a b c d Clint Listing: Translation Loss Records Giant Squid. (No longer available online.) AZM Magazine, archived from the original on August 19, 2014 ; accessed on August 13, 2014 .
- ↑ a b Aaron John Gregory: about. Aaron John Gregory, accessed August 14, 2014 .
- ↑ a b c interview-aaron gregory of giant squid. invisible oranges, accessed August 13, 2014 .
- ↑ Aaron Gregory: Farwell and Adieu. (No longer available online.) This Song is about Sharks, archived from the original on February 4, 2016 ; accessed on May 9, 2016 .
- ↑ Axl Rosenberg: when-youre-done-voting-check-out-some-new-giant-squid. MetalSucks.net, accessed August 14, 2014 .
- ↑ giant-squids-the-ichthyologist-mmmm-metal-calamari. MetalSucks.net, accessed August 14, 2014 .
- ↑ CLARKE READ: Cenotes. (No longer available online.) RevolverMag, archived from the original on December 19, 2014 ; accessed on August 14, 2014 .