Customer Reviews

Avatar (Dig)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This group has assimilated all the influences of great rock music from 1967 to 1972 and come up with a modern vision.Everyone from Frank Zappa to Quicksilver Messenger Service to Morgen to Guess Who to Procol Harum to Yes(plus hundreds of others) are touched upon by this eclectic recording then stretched to an almost Jazzlike sound.I call it pure genius and if any of the above mentioned bands are your idea of great music then I highly recommend this and all their other recordings.Too bad there's no other bands mining this territory, but I'm sure glad these guys are!

If you play this CD in reverse it says "Jesus is Satan."

Comets on Fire are dense. Blue Cathedral was a punishing wall of noise. Listening to it I felt like one of those explorers in the black and white Tarzan movies equipped with a machete inching through the foliage. However, once you carved out your own path the album rewarded you tenfold. Comets are unapologetically classic rock, but instead of just breaking out the old Hendrix and painting by numbers they added some proto-punk and an echoplex.

Some thought Blue Cathedral was more attitude than it was songwriting, and to them Avatar is the perfect rebuttal. Here the Faces riffs and Robert Plant vocals are slowed down to further reveal the songs to the point where someone who hated Blue Cathedral might actually like Avatar. Don't worry, there's still use of the echoplex, and the songs are drawn from six to eight minutes in length (with one exception), but Comets have traded in some of their feral energy for a more dynamic sound.

Benefiting the most from the new dynamics is the bad acid sounding "Lucifer's Memory," a song that sounds like a flower wilting. There's a certain cadence that plugs along with the chugging vocals pushing the song towards its seven minute mark. It has quickly become my favorite new song of this year.

While there are still some rockers, such as the opener "Dogwood Rust" which sounds as if its beginning should be found somewhere before you pressed play, just as the closer sounds as if it ends before the song has stopped, even these rockers sound less brutal than their predecessors. Only "Holy Teeth" has the same long-haired head banging attitude as Blue Cathedral, and it only lasts three minutes (only a minute in Comets on Fire time).

At almost nine-minutes "Soup Smoke" pushes the limits of pseudo-tribal beats. Instead of punishing noise Comets are pounding repetition into our heads. Just thirteen more seconds and I think I would have had a spiritual vision.

At only six minutes long the closer "Hatched Upon the Age" proves that it takes more than just length to be epic and more than just noise for a crescendo. The miracle of the album is that through all of the interplay between the instruments sometimes it's just a couple of simple repetitive piano keys to bring it all home.

Avatar is easily one of the best releases of '06. Very few bands can bring me back to that feeling I got discovering classic rock bands in middle school. But don't break out your eight tracks and dust off the old bong yet. Unlike most bands, retro is only half of the story for Comets on Fire. Comets on Fire are ultimately timeless. Try as I might, I cannot lump them with all the other seventies rockers, but their sound hardly seems contemporary. It's as if they've found some time wormhole so they can rock on across the ages. I'm there, man, I'm there.

Upon inception in 1999, Santa Cruz's Comets on Fire were wise in their choice of band name because their sound does hit first-time listeners with the force of an errant and blazing meteor falling from out of nowhere. Back with their fourth official album as well as their second with the addition of guitarist Ben Chasny, the brainchild of psych/drone rockers Six Organs of Admittance, Comets on Fire have chosen a road less traveled in their career yet haven't lost their wavering psychedelic touch. Whereas their previous release, 2004's Blue Cathedral, was awash with raw noise and feedback and a thick dose of proto punk cut from the cloth of the Stooges and MC5, Avatar is more toned-down in terms of noise, with more of an emphasis on the always swooping guitar of front man Ethan Miller (not to mention his ashtray like voice) along with woozy psych jams sounding like they came from an old live Fillmore recording of Country Joe and the Fish or Jefferson Airplane.



Even as the chill mode is the path taken on "Jaybird," drummer Utrillo Kushner keeps apace with an intensely rapid flow of a be-bop scat-shot percussion groove that also remains tepid. With plenty of half-buried and squelching organ lines and a rustic overtone, it would be a topic of great debate to say that Comets on Fire veer off into an improv mode, but their free jazz approach is undeniable. The organ and keyboard elements are more audible here than they have ever been with Comets on Fire, especially with the druggy lounge blues of "Lucifer's Memory."



Being the mélange of intoxicating mind sets that it is, Avatar is like a sponge of sorts that is absorbed in a mixture of PBR pounders, potent cannabis, and Orange Sunshine LSD. The album also exhibits some of the flourishes of Six Organs of Admittance and Miller's side project Howlin' Rain. Overall, Avatar is a kaleidoscopically gritty effort that contains the sound and vision of an acid test party ethos and a belligerent dram of punk rock defiance. - Chris Pacifico



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Wow, just heard this for the first time and what a nice surprise. This served as my introduction to Comets on Fire so I cannot compare it to any of their previous work, but the strength of Avatar alone has made me a believer. The music on this album is a mix of classic rock, progressive, psychedelic, and a dash of the intangible, which, when added together equals something completely unique. Sounds run the gamut from terrifyingly chaotic and dissonant to meditative and sublime. Guitar is very much in the mix, along with an array of effects. The vocals are really good and soulful. This has made me want to check out their other stuff. Word is Blue Cathedral is the bomb.

Very good ! A band that progress on each cd album. Imaginative, rock, psychedelic, sometimes hard, sometimes smooth. Many influences and finally a wonderful authentic sound. "Comets on Fire" please continue on that way.

if you review a record by complaining that it sounds like yes, don't write the review. WE KNOW that yes is prog, and a lot of people like it, so you're wasting your time. it's a difference in ideology.
that said, this album doesn't sound a bit like yes, it's heavier than it is proggy, dancier than it is jammy, and bluesier than it is pop.
and the singer CAN sing. what's wrong with his singing? it's not as histrionic as jon anderson's, or even greg lake. it's more akin to procal harum, but not as schticky.
this album rides the fence between ambition and masturbation perfectly, recognizing the benefit of both and distributing them evenly.
from the first notes of 'dogwood rust', the peaks and valleys come and go before you could ever get bored, and each song is played masterfully, but the production isn't pristine; instead it leaves all the cracks and leaks, something that goes against the progrock grain, yielding something undoubtedly human. great record.

This Santa Cruz (Northern California) band's fourth full-length carries their overdriven faintly blues-based, amped-up psychedelic hard rock meets a lean postpunk aggressive delivery into calmer territory. Fans of Dead Meadow should seek this out, and vice versa. I like the sequencing--those familiar with the predecessor CD Blue Cathedral will recognize the overdriven echoplexed propulsive distortion that for me recalls Kyuss as much as Blue Cheer. This quality propels the beginning and end of the album, whereas the middle, with one exception, meanders along valleys rather than scaling peaks.

Definitely a Bay Area-influenced band, their geographical location fits the band's 1969-71 influences. They never precisely recall-- but they continue the often-maligned and only recently re-examined and respected, striving, spirit--of the bands of this era that took the acid rock and moved it away from hippie vibes into more obsessively introverted aural and intellectual byways. That they create this music while living out in the countryside is no accident. It feels rooted, Americana for those who don't wear Stetsons but may wear boots! This is smart music, done in an organic way so that songs unfold and emerge slowly, and the pacing is not for the impatient. My four-star rating is earned since the band tends towards a bluesier foundation here than I prefer, but for others this may well be a strength this album around. Listening, I became at first disappointed in the more strictly paced song rhythms, and longed for more skronk. This album holds back rather than rushes towards release. It's rather a tease. But, the album forced me into its own march (like a Kubrick film), and I had to follow and slow down.

This may be a good place to start for those new to CoF. It's more accessible than Blue C or Field Recordings from the Sun [what a great album title], yet shows the band continues to put care and thought into this premeditated (in more ways than one?) exploration of the inner spirit as it wanders disconsolate. It's not as peppy, and much more soulful; while I prefer their second and third albums, I must admit that the continued evolution of this band towards more complex terrain bodes well for its career. I anticipate an even better fifth CD in a couple of years after more contemplation and taping from the band's rural coastal retreat.

For some strange reason{s}, this CD's cover had stuck in my mind for awhile now, as I've seen it available in stores as well as online. Until recently, I've never even heard a Comets On Fire title. As for a desciption some might say they're neo-psychedelic while others would tag them as stoner rock. Tracks that I thought showcased of what this band is capable of was the lengthy opener "Dogwood Rust", the emotional "Swallow's Eye" and "Sour Smoke". Line-up: Ethan Miller-guitar&vocals, Ben Chasny-guitar, Ben Flashman-bass&organ and Utrillo Kushner-drums. Might possibly appeal to fans of High Rise, Blue Cheer and the Sonics.

Well not quite... but really, really close. I mean the cover is great... the music is even better. "Avatar" is easily the best 2006 has to offer. It could be the rock album of the century (since the year 2000 of course). Nothing you hear will sound like this... well at least nothing you've heard in the last 25 years. Comets On Fire's music is a throwback to 70s acid rock and psychedelica. And this album is their best yet.

Dogwood Rust is spectacular. Sour Smoke progresses with a slow, haunting chant to the Rock Gods with drums and guitars to back it. There's more words spoken/sung on "Avatar" then the last few Comets On Fire albums--- or perhaps the vocals are just a little bit more understandable than they have been in the past.

This album easily rivals anything modern progressive bands Tool, The Mars Volta, and Porcupine Tree (for that matter) has put out. There's really not much else to say... you'll just be wondering why you didn't listen to Comets On Fire sooner.

i didn't know that stuff like this was still being made. this is a disc of acid rock freakout glory that puts one in mind of hawkwind, only comets on fire are even better at this stuff than hawkwind. if you are a lover of hard rock mayhem, don't miss this. an outstanding recording!