Pelican
Forever Becoming
Southern Lord
14 October 2013

by David Keevill

Pelican’s fifth full-length, Forever Becoming, has one of those nebulous and noncommittal titles that progressive instrumental bands tend to choose, presumably for the merit of not having to set their stall thematically. It’s indicative of a movement that the band have made with this album though; even for an act whose second nature is to push forward with the exploratory scope of their music, is this a step too far away from their roots?

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They’ve announced a new album coming this Autumn, but before that gets into full swing, instrumental post-metal darlings Pelican returned to London ahead of time as part of a short run of European dates. Hugh Platt went down to nod along and sweat it out in London’s summer heatwave.

6 things we learned watching Pelican in London…

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It’d be fair to say that the The Garage in Highbury has been a pretty damn important venue in the lives of a fair majority of the Thrash Hits team. It was there many years ago as spotty teenagers that the rock’n’roll bug really bit us, when we witnessed One Minute Silence spark a near-riot there (the result of which was the then-owners of the venue banning the band from their network of venues for years). Well, The Garage may have changed hands since then, but it’s grown up with us – since those day darks The Garage has gone through a snazzy refit, and this month they’re celebrating it’s 20th anniversary this month. To mark this occasion, not only are there a load of pretty damn awesome gigs going on at the venue, but they’ve given us a pair of tickets to give away to one lucky Thrash Hits reader to Pelican’s headline show there on Wednesday night. Bloody hell, that’s tomorrow!

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Last week we gave you Raz and Hugh’s albums-of-the-year-so-far, but this week we’re getting in to the real meat of the Thrash Hits Cloudcast. Every week we’re going to put out a show via Mixcloud, talking about – and playing tracks from – the releases coming out this week that you need, ought to, and should be caring about, as well as playing a few tracks by the best tours hitting the UK this week.

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When Pelican announced they’d be doing their first UK shows in four years this April, the first thing Hugh Platt did was cry for joy. The second thing he did was call up their drummer, Larry Herweg, to chat about it.

Whatever ludicrous post-metal tag you like to slap on Pelican, the power and presence the quartet’s wield in heavy music’s instrumental sphere is undeniable. Now that the band is gearing up for their first UK shows in nearly half a decade (spearheaded by the release of their new Ataraxia/Taraxis EP, to which we awarded a praiseworthy 5.5 out of 6 when we reviewed it a couple of weeks back), we gave the band’s drummer, Larry Herweg a call. In between reminding us how much better the whether is over in Los Angeles right now, Larry was more than happy to give us an insight into just why Pelican have been shied from our shores since 2008, and what inspired the release that’s brought them back here after so long away.

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Pelican
Ataraxia/Taraxis
Southern Lord
10 April 2012

by Ruth Booth

I’ve got a straw man here, and my thumb’s got an itch only a zippo can scratch. It all started with the press release for this EP. It states that with the members of Pelican now spread out across the country, and resulting changes to the ways in they record and write, “the EP represents a new chapter in the band’s evolution”. While all that maybe true – sorry Trevor, but say what?

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This is last free download thing we’ll post today – we promise. Southern Lord have put together a killer 20-track mixtape to mark The Power Of The Riff, the tour/festival-thing they’ve got set to tear up the West Coast of the USA later this month. Why should this be of interest of anyone here in Blighty? Well, because said mixtape features acts like All Pigs Must Die, Black Breath, Early Graves, and Trap Them, that’s why.

That and the fact that they’re giving it away for free.

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