Conifer

Conifer was a five-piece instrumental sludge / post-metal from Portland, Maine, United States formed in 2002.

Though Conifer has received quite a bit of critical praise they've somehow managed to live off the grid for the past seven years. Not easily pigeon-holed by a set genre, mixing post-rock, krautrock, metal and psychedelia in a very loud way, they have created a relentlessly driving and hypnotic whirlwind. Minimal, ethereal passages are narcotically lengthened and crescendos of distortion are sustained well beyond the boundaries adhered to by many of their peers. Welcoming dense riffage washes over the listener referencing pan Asian themes, despair and musical manifest destiny. An evolving monster throughout its years, they started as math rock, became more psychedelicized via doom, now are breathing and churning like a shriekingmetal Amon Duul II spewing forth soaring early Scorpions-esque solos contorted and out of control as a speeding train wreck towards Guru Guru land. "Heavy" by being beat/repetition heavy in a way that is practically reminiscent of electronic kraut discipline....yet just as loud and massive as ever.

Band split up in 2009.

http://www.myspace.com/conifer
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"Bands have been naming themselves after all manner of objects and creatures since the beginning of rock and roll. Heavy bands tending toward the mighty, the fierce or at least the very large. All manner of monsters and demons, various tigers and lions and even some sea creatures have been represented. But the largest, most imposing objects in nature have been sadly neglected as a source for inspiration and band-naming. TREES. So we have Conifer to right that wrong. And in doing so, judging from this ferocious slab of indie rock / metal sludge hypno-pummel, you'd certainly be forgiven for thinking this particular tree could take on any of the rock demons and metallic beasties that came before. Conifer sleepily trawl through the dark recesses of post rock, taking the languorous slow burning churn of bands like Slint or Seam Or Bastro, all dark and brooding, simple and insistent, and stretching the riffs and melodies into expansive stretches of moody melancholy, swathed in Pink Floydian swoosh and whirl, before dropping the bomb. Massive downtuned guitars explode, splitting post rock atoms into clumps of corrosive riffage, peppered with raspy howls and screeching banshee melodies, sometimes gaining momentum and becoming unstoppable exercises in epic doomy drone-metal ala Neurosis or Isis, sometimes becoming glacial explorations into slow motion doom a la Khanate, and other times employing distorted ghostly computer vocals and buzzing psychedelia into Butthole Surfers-like sonic freakouts. A lot of this does definitely sound like Isis, Neurosis, Pelican or Buried At Sea, which is obviously a good thing, but more often it sounds like a doom-sludge A Minor Forest or a post rock Boris or a very metal Slint. Which is an even better thing!"

/ Aquarius Records

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