The Best Band in Georgia is Lost Hours
You are small. Very small. You are looking at a mountain. Its size is too much. It cannot be that big. You can feel it. Feel the size. Your chest is tight. You are sweating. Despite the snow. Gray snow. You try to blink. You can’t.
You stare. The mountain stares. Miles and miles away. Directly in front of you. There are others. You cannot see them. They are small. They are screaming. You are screaming. Abandoned cries. Wind. Gray snow. You are small.
The mountain is growing. Impossible. You are staring. It is the same size. It is growing why is it growing. Impossible. The mountain stares.
Where it is growing why. What will it become. Rumbling.
Your eyes do not move. Earthquakes. No. Footsteps. Impossible. The mountain is growing. The cries are louder. Yours.
Past you. Already gone. It took ages. It took no time. Its back is to you. Striding. Every footfall is another world lost to time. Colossus. Before and after.
The mountain trembles. Walking toward it why is it walking toward it. What will happen. Its motion is too slow to see. Too great not to. It is close. It is ages away.
It reaches the mountain. They are gone.
Nothing is there. No wind. No voices. Nothing is there. You can see it you see the nothing. Nothing stares back. Nothing is there how is it there. You remember the mountain. Remember Colossus. They were. Then they were not. Nothing is now. No wind. No voices. You are small.
Lost Hours instructs you to listen to their two-song album, I, at “high volumes in total darkness.” I did(ish), and the above scene played out as “Rites of the Colossus” and “Fall to Salt” lurched by, hulking and massive in their scope. This band doesn’t seem to care if an audience is present or not; there is something it needs to say and it will be said. If the album were a live show, I would picture them with their backs to the audience as they trudged through the fourteen minutes of “Rites of the Colossus.” Then, without a word, they’d pack up and leave as the droning, hypnotic “Fall to Salt” weaves its enigmatic tale. Lost Hours has no Facebook page that I could find, no information on members, and no presence aside from their Bandcamp page. The air of mystery surrounding this cloudy, swirling album adds to the effect of the music; a detached, massive world that thinks nothing of you carries on while everything else is left to freeze.
Our pick for the best unsigned band in Georgia may not be a greatly popular, as not everyone sees eye-to-eye on this drone-y, sludgy, drawn-out style. What we have here is pure aesthetic; there is no structure to latch on to, no chorus to anchor us, no hook to wrap around. All the listener is left with is a sense of the here and now. How will you respond when the mountain stares back? Do you brush it off, or do you sit back and ponder the consuming void? Decide here, where you can download the album at your preferred price!
HONORABLE MENTION:
BEAR FIGHT! (Savannah, GA)
This was our closest and most contentious vote yet. I have to give some dap to this Savannah stoner quintet (or as our resident musicologist Christian Molenaar calls it: “stoned-Randy-Newman-core”). Lately I’ve been spinning “No Mind” over and over. If you’re looking for skilled songwriting and inviting instrumentation you need to check Bear Fight! out. This is great rock & roll and I dare you not to jam. Check their Bandcamp and like ’em on Facebook. [Papa Joe]
The Toilet ov Hell is on an absurd quest to find the best unsigned band in each state of this glorious union. The purpose? To shine the spotlight on bands that deserve more exposure. Also, we’re going to determine once and for all the greatest state in the nation. Each state winner is decided by a collection of 25 judges. After we’ve announced the winner of each state, we’re gonna throw them all in a winner-take-all bracket and leave the votes up to you. Who will be the best unsigned band in the United States? Which state is superior? We can’t wait to find out.
Previous winners:
Alabama — Phylum
Alaska — Terraform
Arizona – Take Over And Destroy
Arkansas – Torii
California – Destroy Judas
Colorado – The Sleer
Connecticut – Autumn’s Eyes
Delaware – Sloss
Florida – Capracide
