Coaltar of the Deepers - Forever

While being up late last night I found myself listening to the live audio version of Coaltar of the Deepers DVD/CD release Forever. Before that I had never heard it, mostly due to me not really having a method of doing so other than going out buying a DVD player that can play region 2 DVD's. Anyway, for those who haven't heard this band, they are an interesting outfit from Japan who play an odd combination of shoegaze and metal. They have been around for quite awhile over in Japan releasing multiple albums and at the same time going through a number of lineup changes throughout that time. If I were to say this band sounds like anyone, the closest I can think would be possibly a bit like Swervedriver during their early "Raise" era. That though is even a stretch as Coaltar of the Deepers have definitely forged their own sound with their hybrid of shoegaze.

The live disc Forever was just released just a couple years ago and features the band playing at Shinjuku Loft November 2-3 in 2004. I wish I had the DVD, but however from the CD portion only, it sounds absolutely amazing. Some of the songs have been tinkered with, like "Good Morning", toning it down a bit and adding a nice electronic beat to the background. The same is done for "Receive Assimilation", which again adds a lot to the song in my opinion. One thing I was incredibly impressed with was their ability to pull off all of this live. They are an incredibly tight outfit pulling off each of their songs without a hitch and even adding to them more so than on the albums, which are already incredibly textured to begin with.

For those of you that have a region 2 DVD player can find Forever over at Tonevendor. The DVD portion actually includes the whole live performance, 4 promotional videos, a "making of" feature of their "Dead by Dawn" video, and an interview. So yeah, it would be extremely cool to have. And for other Coaltar of the Deepers releases I would suggest checking out YesAsia possibly.

Coaltar of the Deepers - Good Morning (live Shinjuku Loft) [MP3]
Coaltar of the Deepers - Blink (live Shinjuku Loft) [MP3]
Coaltar of the Deepers - Receive Assimilation (live Shinjuku Loft) [MP3]