Rosetta
A Determinism of Morality
Translation Loss, 2010
These guys just continue to amaze me. Just when I thought they couldn't top The Galilean Satellites and Wake/Lift, SNAP! They drop some science like this on me. Now, both of the previously mentioned records are amazing, but this is just more straightforward. You can't mention Rosetta without drawing comparisons to Isis. But these guys are WAY more interesting than Isis. They're like one part Explosions in the Sky, one part Old Man Gloom (yes, I know, another Aaron Turner reference), and all f**king rock. Plus, it always amazed me that they're only a four-piece. Their sound is so dense and layered that it seems like it would be impossible to recreate live. But they do it, and if you've ever seen their live setup you could probably see how. They tour with their own Guitar Center.
This whole record is phenomenal, but I find myself drawn to "Release" and "Revolve". Bassist David Grossman's vocals on "Release" are ridiculous. You know a band is serious when their bass player can out-sing pretty much any other band's frontman. "Revolve" is just spacey and (I hesitate to say it) "cinematic" splendor. Yes. Splendor. Trust me.
Rosetta have always been ahead of the curve and this is less experimental than there other stuff. But that's not a bad thing at all. Post-Metal, Progressive-Metal, whatever you want to call it. These guys kill it.