A SUBURB OF EARTH

The Irish band ZOMBIE PICNIC was formed in 2012, and, according to the musicians' own description, "is a progressive post rock band from Limerick formed by 4 friends looking to explore the limits of a corrugated metal clad storage space". "A Suburb of Earth" is the band's debut album, self-released via its own label Golden Shred Records in 2016.

Instrumental post-progressive rock that includes elements from psychedelic rock appears to be the name of the game of this Irish foursome, music of the kind I'd personally describe as post something, and that also features nods in the direction of both metal and jazz-rock at times, dream-laden, wandering atmospheres, alternating between gentler and firmer passages, with something of a mathematical feel at times, one to seek out by those fond of tight, instrumental progressive rock of the kind that possibly merits a placement inside a post something context.

The name ZOMBIE PICNIC conjures up the perfect imagery of a couple in love nonchalantly strolling through the woods and finding the perfect verdant clearing to engage in the act of having a PICNIC. But unbeknownst to them the ZOMBIE apocalypse was scheduled on the calendar and they are quickly greeted by the living dead ready to convert them into the army of lost souls. Well, this Limerick, Ireland based post-rock band may taunt and tease with its chosen moniker but in reality is not a doom and gloom metal band but rather dishes out an interesting hybridization of post-rock alongside disparate influences ranging from the surreal psychedelic of Pink Floyd, the hard rock heft of classic rock to various samplings and sizzling echo rich guitar soloing.

While following in the footsteps of fellow post-rockers such as Mogwai and the Battles as far as their post-rock crews are concerned, this four-piece all instrumental band was formed in 2012 by Jim Griffin (guitar), Dave Tobin (guitar), Brian Fitzgerald (bass) and Brendan Miller (drums) with the next four years spent crafting their debut release A SUBURB OF EARTH which the band released digitally. Unlike many post-rock bands that rely on repetitive hypnosis to engage the listener, ZOMBIE PICNIC displays a keen sense of ambitiousness with the subtle variations that emerge from the typical cyclical bass groove drive that constitutes most post rock. By providing a greater sense of melody constructed through carefully laid out guitar licks and chord changes, ZOMBIE PICNIC feels like its one step away from leaving the post-rock world altogether and becoming a fully fueled prog rock band.

A SUBURB ON EARTH contains four tracks. The introductory "The B141 Frequency" gets things started as the longest tracks of 11 1/2 minutes but also delivers some of the hardest hitting guitar rock on the album with a heavy distorted rock guitar leading the way but after a few minutes the subtleties begin to distinguish themselves as timbres, tempos, dynamics and odd inserted samples start to peek in and out until the groove oriented track reaches its conclusion. It goes without saying that ZOMBIE PICNIC differentiate themselves from the standard post-rock outfit by engaging in strong musicianship based around a groove rather than allowing the groove to be the beacon around which to construct an escapist's vision of simple plodding surrealism although there is that as well.

"The Adamite Bomb" slows things down a bit and implements a clean echoey guitar more reminiscent of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon" with spoken samples from Arthur C. Clarke providing an unexpected counterpoint to the repetitive guitar, bass and drums. Unfortunately despite the cool atmosphere, the track seems to fall into a rut and reverts to a rather generic post-rock paradigm for far too long before finally erupting into heavier rock induced jam material that ends it more satisfying than which it began however the excess use of the vocal samplings seems a tad superfluous and is obviously providing some sort of icing on the cake however for some reason becomes irritating in its excess.

"The Cylindrical Sea" is the most Floydian track of all that engages in a nonchalant breezy tempo and plenty of spacey guitar effects and synthesized atmosphere. It generates an intensity of sonic buildup before switching to a heavier guitar riff but it's fleeting and the track mostly simmers on mellow mode with guitar echoes and piercing licks providing the primary stimulus but luckily things change up every few measures with different echo sequences, bass lines and guitar riffs despite the same cyclical melodic flow. The hefty guitar bombast at the end that alternates with the echo guitar is a cool feature. The production on this one is flawless.

"The Rama Committe" starts off in the typical Floydian finery with the space rock effects in full swing but the track evolves into one a harder edged sound as the guitars increases decibelage and the track engages in more subtle creativity. In other words it doesn't just flow by like a brainwashed soldier in battle but rather dishes out a menagerie of guitar tones, licks, drum rolls and other musical variations and also brings back some undisclosed vocal samplings that have been processed to emulate the echoey guitar parts. The guitar parts themselves are more dynamic than other other tracks with all kinds of slides, arpeggiations as well as the standard riffing.

Overall i wanted a horror story to emerge from a band named ZOMBIE PICNIC but what we get is a nerdy sound stuffed journey of post-rock laced with heavier rock, space rock and production tricks. Not bad at all but in the end A SUBURB OF EARTH seems more like a jam band that improvised the four tracks and then went to the studio to add all the bells and whistles. Pretty decent album but falls short of creating the proper atmospheric cohesiveness that constitutes a stellar post-rock release. One of the most demanding aspects of post-rock is that of control and ZOMBIE PICNIC comes off as amateurs who have packed in too much sonic stuffing in their post-rock pepper. While interesting ideas are presented, the art of streamlining had not yet been mastered. Still though, if you're not a perfectionist, then A SUBURB OF EARTH is quite the unique post-rock album that despite the influences on board doesn't really sound like any other band that i've encountered.

3.5 rounded down