The visitors have landed... or returned. It depends on how familiar you are with the Japanese punk scene of the '90s. Coaltar of the Deepers is a long-running metal band with strongly identifiable, and I dare say, assertive, shoegaze elements. Formed in '91, they released their first album The Visitors from Deepspace in 1994. Some of the coverage of this band has identified Hum and Deftones as possible successors of their sound, but the only US band that I've ever heard refer to them as an actual influence of there's is the hardcore band Hazing Over (formerly Shin Gaurd). As for Coaltar of the Deepers own influences, their vocalist and bandleader Naraski puts the band in the same bushel as grotesqueries as grindcore acts like Terrorizer. And yes, I'm aware that reading that sentence probably just gave someone an aneurysm.
Now suppose you really wanted to give someone reason to question what they think they know about metal and shoegaze, and the boundaries between them. In that case, you can just play for them Coaltar of the Deepers's death metal cover of The Cure's "Killing an Arab." Then you can gloat while you watch them pick at stray threads protruding from their clothes and contemplate the choices in their lives that have brought them to this specific moment, where all of their references for sound and culture have burst into sparks and smoke before their eyes, like bottle rockets shot off into the night sky.
Coaltar of the Deepers's have recently renamed their cover of "Killing an Arab," changing it to "Killing Another." This new version appears on their most recent album Revenge of the Visitors, their first official US release, and a full re-recording of their debut album with the original lineup. Even though a lot of these compositions haven't changed dramatically from their originals, it's still surprisingly compelling to listen to both, as neither manages to fully usurp the place of the other. The Visitors from Deepspace has an appreciable and eager, naive power to it that simply cannot be replicated, while Revenge of the Visitors represents versions of these same tracks that benefit from modern recording technology and a certain sureness of execution that brings out the foundation strength and forward-facing orientation of these compositions.
In particular, the improved recording quality helps bring out the playful contrasts of melody and groove that propel a track like "Amethyst (Revenge)" as well as the absurdly catchy hooks of the death vocal flirting, pop-overflow of "Earth Thing." The starkest upgrade takes the form of the brain-tickling vocal hooks of "Summer Days" which explode out of the otherwise somber, jagged affair like a passenger train crashing through the front gate of a cemetery and unleashing a swarm of jubilant, hooting phantoms. To give The Visitors from Deepspace its due, the crinkly and waywardly psychedelic quality of the original recording of "Snow" is delightfully romantic in a way that the newer version just isn't. I also much prefer the barely constrained and badly warped quality of the original "Your melody" which simply cannot be imitated by more seasoned musicians working under ideal recording conditions.
Finally, The Visitors from Deepspace terminates with a noisy, studio imploding punk-blaster, while Revenge of the Visitors recedes with the cooling swirl of a tension off-setting ambient track. Both titled "The Visitors," both the product of pure impromptu improvisation. Coaltar of the Deepers haven't come to meet your leader. They are the leader.
Get a copy of Revenge of the Vistors on vinyl and cassette from Needlejuice Records.
