Alvarius B / Cerebrus Shoal
““The Vim & Vigor of Alvarius B and Cerebrus Shoal””
(North East Indie Records)
This is the second of a split series brought to you by Cerebrus Shoal and Alvarius B. In all honesty, the relationship between and the organization of this record is sort of confusing because the only mention that this is two different bands doing a split is in the title and in the fine print of the lyrics. Then the two bands write songs performed by the other band or some weird shit like that.
Either I’m retarded (highly possible) or these kids are doing their best not to be understood, but either way it’s tiresome.
Alvarius B makes artsy, acoustic driven compositions, that you could easily throw in the same category of a Low/Elliott Smith hybrid. Mostly it is characterized by guitar minimalism with dark deep lyrics about shit you don’t even want to think about.
Then there’s Cerebral Shoal whose first track “Blood Baby” sounds like something you might hear in Asia at a dance for the king with beautiful women with scarves dancing about. This isn’’t in a bad way though because their mystique gives me the willies and really pushes the envelope. The rest of their tracks are strangely written (one is over eighteen minutes!), but fucking spectacular. Not for everyone, but wow.
