Ring, Cicada – History’s End
The new record History’s End from Ring, Cicada has been one in the making for nearly four years now. There were definitely points where it seemed like the record seeing a release at all was improbable, however by late last year the album was proclaimed as finished and was just recently released by the band digitally for the time being. For those that haven’t heard their previous album Good Morning, Mr. Good from 2003 on 54, 40′ or Fight! then do yourself a humongous favor and go back and take a listen to that album along with this latest one.
The band has surely made the wait worthwhile by delivering roughly an hour and ten minutes or so worth of music spread across twelve rocking tracks. That said, there is definitely a lot to digest here and I know I’ve went through it a few times each one finding new parts of songs that didn’t hit me right away before. Not unlike Good Morning, Mr. Good the songs contained on History’s End are once again full of tempo changes and numerous big riffs. I used to always see these guys get labeled as playing some sort of post-rock and I can’t say I agree with that as most of that crap gets me snoozing rather quickly and there is nothing about Ring, Cicada that is going to put me to sleep. One of the most notable differences found on History’s End is the inclusion of a bit more vocals, which with even the upped usage are still used sparsely throughout the record, however the further focus on vocals works quite nicely and I am definitely glad they’ve decided to incorporate them a bit more. In the end though History’s End is an album that is about rocking the listener and Ring, Cicada has absolutely no trouble succeeding in doing just that in the way that Midwestern bands can seemingly only do.
Since the album is currently only available digitally I am simply going to use the embedded player that streams the whole album. As of right now the album doesn’t have any sort of artwork, however all the proceeds from the digital sales will go towards this and physical versions of the album. Those who buy it now will get first dibs on a vinyl release, according to the band.
Definitely get this through Bandcamp if you like what you hear on the player. There a number of options as to what format of digital media you want it in, so no worries on that.
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February 6th, 2009 at 6:06 am
I didn’t think they’d ever finish a follow-up, since their first album had some riffs that originated from the group’s earliest incarnation. Excited to check it out, however, and I’d gladly buy a vinyl pressing.
March 3rd, 2009 at 10:47 pm
call me old fashioned, but i´d rather have a cd than just the digital version.. man, i waited so damn long to hear a sign of life from those guys..