Rosetta
Wake/Lift
Translation Loss Records 2007
Rosetta's new album struck me from out of nowhere. Translation Loss has
another exceptionally great release on their hands with Wake/Lift. Imagine
if Katatonia and Irepress had a bastard child together and you get some idea of
what Rosetta represents. These talented artists combine the thick and
melancholic riffing of the former with the stark and clean melodies of the
latter. And they manage to achieve such a sorrowful combination that is
both heartfelt and clinically cold at the same time. All of Red Tooth and
Claw's 12 minutes tug at your heart strings while pounding your face with
cacophonous sledgehammer explosions. Each song follows a eerily similar
and evocative pattern of monolithic slow motion riffs of thick guitar chords
interspersed with beautiful and fragile clean guitar lines lending the whole
album an strangely calm and serene mood despite the utter heaviness and violence
of the more rhythmic passages. Lift (Part 2) is a dissonant and mechanical
soundscape that would be right at home on a Skin Chamber or Godflesh album.
Whereas Wake makes me want to slit my wrists as the tears streak down my face,
such is the feeling of tragedy and despair that sweeps over me when each
sorrowful note escapes my speakers and pushes me further toward oblivion.
I can feel that these guys are right on the edge off exploding into a jazz
inspired breakdown but somehow they remain as tempered as the fading rays of
warmth from a winter sun. The instruments on this album are all perfectly
produced. Though I wish Mike Armine's gruff vocals were a little higher in
the mix as sometimes they sound a bit trampled beneath all those delay heavy
riffs. And this album has to have one of the best drum productions I have
heard in a long time. Rosetta's Wake/Lift is going to stay in the hollow
shell of my now fragile emotions for a long time. After hearing this album
it is gonna take a long time to drag myself out of the depths of despair and
heal the emotional wounds it has left.