(Progressive Rock, Post Rock, Ethereal, Ambient) The Victor Ship - Discography 2010-2012 (2 Albums + 2 Singles), MP3, 320 kbps

The Victor Ship In Somnis Veritas
user rating 4.2 excellent
4.0 excellent Daniel King USER (9 Reviews)
August 4th, 2010 | 15 replies | 5,221 views
Summary: An incredibly enjoyable album of beautiful deftness and grace.
There is only room for a handful of ambient, post-rock/post-metal bands on my iTunes. A group of brilliant minds like Isis is needed in order to keep the genre from becoming wearisome because far too many bands think that slapping some watery delay on a lead line and backing it up with a pad and some unorthodox drumming makes good material. Granted, this really does sound decent eighty percent of the time, but making it great is a whole other challenge.
The Victor Ship are a young band based out in Los Angeles, California, and they’ve thrown themselves into this challenging genre with a noticeable air of confidence. Having recently cut their first full-length album, In Somnis Veritas, The Victor Ship are left only to hope that listeners such as myself are willing to dive into yet another ambient, post-rock epic of this sort. In my mind, the genre can be similar to technical metal in that I find myself wary of diving into a new album that, by its very nature, will take a significant amount of time to digest and may, in the end, prove to have not been worth the investment. Fortunately, In Somnis Veritas is an incredibly enjoyable album of beautiful deftness and grace.
This breed of project demands an acute sense of tone, and In Somnis delivers on all levels in this department. The guitars are gorgeously highlighted with delays and reverbs that never become over-powering or muddy. The distortions are crisp yet full and are greatly varied from song to song, which noticeably adds to the album’s dynamic. The bass is always clearly distinguishable, sitting very comfortably between a low rumble and trebly punch, and the drums are well recorded with good tone and level on the kick and snare. This album sounds great.
The Victor Ship incorporate a good deal of theatricality into their sound, introducing the album with a man musing about how the world has stopped dreaming (“they say dreaming’s dead…”) and how he has the intention of dreaming every day. The front half of the record is full of these voiceover moments, and the voiceovers are done with varying degrees of success. They mostly have a positive effect on the album, giving it a surreal, intellectual yet emotional edge. A newscaster gives reports on an aircraft downed by a meteor shower. A man theorizes about the technical nature of dreams (interesting how this album came out just before Inception) and so on. The acting and writing can occasionally come off a tad cheesy (“Hey, you a dreamer?” Man replies, “Yeah.”) but overall the voiceovers are a welcomed addition.
This album is mostly an easy listen in every way. The music never gets ultra-technical (the drumming, which is fantastic, is the most technical element) or heady, but the writing possesses a heightened sense of sophistication. Every song has at least one part that makes an imprint on the listener and stands out with breathtaking singular power. The Victor Ship has a good knack for getting things stuck in your head and this talent of theirs will be key to their success. Every member is markedly skilled with his respective instrument and every instrument is used well with countering guitar riffs, weaving bass lines and syncopated beats. Things don’t get heavy often, but when more abrasive, Underoath-esque guitar work is used it is done to great effect, and vocalist Dave Dorosh displays an astoundingly formidable screaming voice on tracks With Hope I Breathe and Open Eyes.
The vocals are the main (if only) area where the album suffers. Dorosh has an impressive voice, and he sings with plenty of conviction, but at times the tone can feel slightly melodramatic. He absolutely shines through most of the album’s length, but there are some weak moments like the cadence that closes out the otherwise beautiful track Amid the Roar. The song flawlessly builds to a crescendo that unfortunately falls flat due to weak (and somewhat pitchy) group vocals. Still, the vocal flaws are minor and easily forgivable.
In Somnis Veritas is an ambitious album that hardly ever bites off more than it can chew; a pretty marvelous feet for a full length debut from a band that is still on a local level. The album is on iTunes and I strongly recommend picking it up. If one were to buy single tracks I would suggest Amid The Roar, Of Claws And Wings, The Accident, With Hope I Breathe and Open Eyes, though the whole record is definitely worth purchasing. I will be watching this band closely and eagerly as they hopefully continue to write and further their presence in the Los Angeles music scene.

The Victor Ship Contes De Fees
user rating
3.9
excellent
4.0
excellent Adam Thomas STAFF
May 31st, 2012 | 27 replies | 2,235 views
Summary: Memories
Do you ever wish that sometime before their hiatus announcement that Thrice had upped and said to hell with their roots rock revivalist influences that consumed their last two albums (well, two and a half considering the Earth disc of The Alchemy Index) and instead combined their spacier affections with the aggressive but oh so catchy moments of their first few records? Well, luckily for that bit of nostalgia trimmed pipe dreamer in every post-hardcore fan The Victor Ship's newest EP Contes De Fees is exactly that – the sound of everything worth remembering from 2000's post-hardcore rolled into one tightly wound package. It's hard to pinpoint just one direct influence, as they are worn a little loosely on their sleeves, but it runs the gamut from The Receiving End of Siren's club sized stadium antics, Circa Survive's intricate spiderweb cadences, and Jupiter-era Cave In's space odyssey ambiance. Driven in equal part by the churning sonicscapes that cascade and collide in beautiful bursts and the dual vocal approach of guitarist Matt Battaglia and drummer Chris Buongiorno Contes De Fees is a delicate and delectable crescendo of shimmer radiance with just a touch of brute force. Take for example the opening track “Why Do You Hoard?”, with it's angular riffing sucking you in and the closing vocal harmonies spitting you back out in a massive sing-a-long chant that, while familiar, is downright enchanting. These connections of moments and memories spiral through the near 30 minute EP, unfolding like a map of a genre past but still holding on to the unique feeling as if it was heard for the first time.
With the popular wing of post-hardcore devolving into a indistinguishable mush of neon, it's a great sight that The Victor Ship have taken the banner left by some of the genre's most beloved acts and have progressed it into a new decade.