Junius

This is their new album that's coming out via The Mylene Sheath at the end of October. I can't really offer a good description of this band without comparing them to The Cure/Joy Division and that's not entirely accurate so here is some info about them:

While Junius' sound is sometimes tough to categorize, they have cited such artists as Bedhead (Junius singer/guitarist Joseph E. Martinez's uncle Trini was their drummer), Philip Glass, Hum, and M83 among a long list of inspirations. The band has been electrifying rapt audiences with their spellbinding walls of reverb-drenched guitars, haunting vocals and self-made lights since 2004.

Preparation for the long-awaited album began in 2006, with month-long writing/recording sessions in such unconventional locales as a bank vault in California, a warehouse in Texas, a farmhouse in Vermont, and a shack in the swamps of Louisiana. The result is a full-fledged concept album, inspired by the life and theories of controversial scholar Immanuel Velikovsky.

From birth to death, The Martyrdom of A Catastrophist chronicles a man whose progressive theories on ancient history and the cosmos were widely challenged by mainstream academia during his lifetime. The album's ten songs are both cinematic and accessible, building to crescendos which echo some of Post Rock's most epic moments, but with vocals, hooks, and lyrics creating focus throughout. Actual quotes from Velikovsky's interviews and lectures are interspersed between songs, providing a sense of narrative to the proceedings.

I grabbed this last night and have only had the chance to listen to it once but so far I'm really into it. Check it out, and if you dig it shoot me an email and I will send you their self titled release from 2007 which is an amazing record as well.

1. Birth Rites By Torchlight
2. The Antediluvian Fire
3. (turning to the spirits of the hours...)
4. A Dramatist Plays Catastrophist
5. Ten Year Librarian
6. Stargazers And Gravediggers
7. (...he fell before her)
8. Elisheva, I Love You
9. Letters From Saint Angelica
10. The Mourning Eulogy

Download for free at http://www.gimmesound.com/JUNIUS/