Album Review – THE SUN THROUGH A TELESCOPE – I DIE SMILING

I Die Smiling is a late 2013 release from Ottawa based one man drone/doom recording project, The Sun Through A Telescope. While listening to Smiling, I once again wondered if I’m really cut out to be writing reviews on other peoples creative endeavors, as it sometimes makes me feel like a bad person. But we’re all part of a team here at Destroy the Brain. And when you’re part of a team, sometimes you have to take one for the team. And to be honest, I’m probably not that nice of a person to begin with anyway so that makes us even, Jack.

First off, the production on this record is straight-up awful. The power guitars on the track Svnday that come out of nowhere, there’s random whistling. WHISTLING. There are so many distracting and bizarre sound elements on this record, I can hardly pay attention to any of it. I really tried hard to find anything redeeming about Smiling, but even the song titles irritated me. Like the title to the records 21 minute epic that follows:

Werewolf Weather Part I – Glowing
Overcast/Useasonably Gloomed Part II –
Those Animals Killed You Part III –
Sent Back Dead From Pepsi Part IV (Fucking really, dude?)
The’re Evil Animals

8 minutes into this track, we get treated to Ottowa’s riff on a Southern manic street preacher telling you to go to hell. The vocals get slowed down and suddenly I’m listening to words coming out of Robert Duvall’s mouth in The Apostle (Editor’s Note: the sound clip is from Paradise Lost 2: Revelations). 13 schizophrenic minutes later and I don’t even realize it’s over. But such is the nature of this record. At times, interludes were so quiet there was almost nothing to hear, only to jarred awake by whatever car crash comes next – will it be out-of-tune-scream-o with the treble turned all the way up, or an audio outtake from the old Dr. Who theme. Bunch of kids laughing, or maybe a dolphin? So much going on, none of it good.

There’s some attempts at noise on I Die Smiling, but they are brief. At times the ambient tones of Werewolf gave me hope, but I can hardly made it through those moments either. Remember? In a last-ditch attempt to assure myself I was right about my take on Smiling, I decided to consult an actual werewolf, “Charlie Brown/Jeff Cassie” – vocalist for Canadian speed kings, The Browns. Jeff’s a little of like that Mikey kid who OD’ed on Pop Rocks, he sort of likes everything. And even he said it was “too much” for him. But who knows, maybe I’m missing something no I’m not. Or perhaps I’m just not dismal or hip enough to figure out what multi-genre musical efforts from bands like The Sun Through A Telescope are up to. I just know I don’t like it.

I Die Smiling is out now on Mutants of Monsters Records (and cassette from Dwyer Records)
Album stream via Bandcamp