The Golden Sores "A Peaceable Kingdom"
Labeled as drone, The Golden Sores really do not move me that way. Nor do they count as “experimental” as some would describe them in a some carelessly offhand way. To these ears, I hear a beautifully lush, forever in flux crimson gush of monolithic sound and disintegrating bone. Some might call that drone, but these days, that descriptor is forever hammered into a blood-trodden path too often trod. Instead, what I hear here are some wonderfully throbbing explorations of both non-percussive rhythm and a rich appreciation of timbre and distortion via strings and keys.
Rather than the above mentioned drone, this insanely gorgeous psych is driven by an array of instrumentation both broken and new, and the results are often fearful, beatific and dazzling. To wit, the second track of the CD, “The Awful Rowing Toward God,” is a clear example that beauty results from anguish, and that seems to be an aesthetic constant throughout “A Peaceable Kingdom.” The entire recording maintains that bitter apex, dirty yet covered with a deceptively pearlescent varnish.
Every track imparts both sublimity and dirt, divinity and disease—and that’s a wonderful duality. At first listen, I thought that this was merely another electric wannabe, but upon further attention, the 8-mile gaze rendered itself into an awful clarity of sincere catastrophe and completion. Where the Sores will soar next is anyone’s guess, however, I’m assuming their wings are already burned to a tasty crisp. For those who love dense and sunburned acid, then you can’t wrong with “A Peaceable Kingdom.” 8/10 -- P. Somniferum (11 August, 2009)
