Rosetta

Philadelphia quartet Rosetta push the boundaries between post-hardcore, sludge, post-metal, progressive rock, post-rock, ambient, drone, noise, shoegaze and space rock, with influences as diverse as Neurosis, Isis, My Bloody Valentine, Frodus, and Stars of the Lid. The band somewhat humorously self-describes its music as "metal for astronauts", and its members are very interested in astronomy and space travel. Their first album (The Galilean Satellites Read more on Last.fm …read full bio

Philadelphia quartet Rosetta push the boundaries between post-hardcore, sludge, post-metal, progressive rock, post-rock, ambient, drone, noise, shoegaze and space rock, with influences as diverse as Neurosis, Isis, My Bloody Valentine, Frodus, and Stars of the Lid. The band somewhat humorously self-describes its music as "metal for astronauts", and its members are very interested in astronomy and space travel. Their first album (The Galilean Satellites, 2005) was an especially ambitious project: the goal was to record two discs of equal length (one a metal album, the other a noise/ambient/drone album), each of which could stand on its own, but played together would create a third, more intense experience. The technique fits well with the band's unique experiments in noise, sampling, feedback and power. The sheer amount of aural input means every listen becomes a new experience, allowing the listener to pick up on more and more layers within the sounds. They got the inspiration for this from the Tribes of Neurot ambient/drone companion record to 1999's Times of Grace by the mighty Neurosis. Their next album (Wake/Lift, 2007) was a bit more restrained, but for this reason, really allows the band's songwriting to solidify and proves them worthy of the "mainstream" of the avant-metal world. It should be noted this record also has an ambient/drone/noise counterpart entitled Cleansing Undertones of Wake/Lift but this time, it was not released as part of the same album as with Satellites, it is a separate release. Additionally, Lift was originally a single long song as evidenced by the existing demo version, however, it was split into 3 separate tracks for the album version. The third full-length album, A Determinism of Morality, was released in May of 2010, and featured shorter, faster songs, with a bit more attention to technical playing and compositional structure. The fourth full-length album saw a change in release strategy by the band. Released through its own bandcamp The Anaesthete was released as a 'pay what you wish' release on August 8th 2013. The band hoped that the money paid by the fans would allow them to invest in a vinyl run in the USA as a CD/Vinyl deal was in place for Europe (Debemur Morti Productions) and Australia (Monolith). On August 15th the band posted a facebook update on its DIY 'experiment'. Early Rosetta was particularly heavy as it was space-y still. Mike's harsh vocals had a lot of distortion and were specifically rawer, tougher and rougher than on post-Satellites albums. His vocals became a bit more melodic and slightly less guttural as records progressed, however, they are still harsher than what most other post-bands sound like. Clean vocals were introduced on A Determinism of Morality and have been a constant feature ever since. Rosetta never went back to their original sound, although they still possess characteristics of it. The Anaesthete was a combination of their Wake/Lift style and the shorter, more uplifting and faster approach to songs displayed on A Determinism of Morality. Quintessential Ephemera put forth a style closer to A Determinism with a more compact and streamlined approach to short songs, this record is also very melodic in nature. Utopioid could be described as a mix of all past Rosetta records: heavy, melodic, ambient-y, drone-y, post-rock-y and with harsh as well as clean vocals. Their first split album was released together with Balboa and was entitled Project Mercury, it is very much in the vein of Wake/Lift. Comprised of an instrumental song, a vocal song and a collaborative joint song with Balboa. Their next split was with East of the Wall and Year of No Light and featured a post-metal rendition of a The Cure song, 'Homesick'. It is in the style of 2010's A Determinism. There was also another split with Restorations that proposed a long song that was mostly a build up and slow quickening of pace until reaching an explosive climax in the typical Rosetta fashion. 2011 saw the release of a split with Junius featuring a moderately long song not too far off from the sound they had been displaying at the time plus a cover of Soundgarden's 4th of July as a bonus track. In 2012, they re-released their songs found on Project Mercury as a split with City of Ships. After the release of The Anaesthete, they put out an EP entitled Flies to Flames that for most of its length is just ambient/drone that builds up to the final post-metallic song. Right after Quintessential, in 2015, they released an instrumental audiovisual soundtrack in an ambient/drone style. And in 2016 a compilation of demos, remixes, alternate versions and live acoustic songs called A Dead-Ender's Reunion. In 2018 they released a live session at Audiotree where they played material from Quintessential and Utopioid. Much in the vein of Cleansing Undertones..., Sower of Mind is an EP comprised of ambient and drone reinterpretations of Utopioid numbers. Their most recent release is an EP entitled Terra Sola that displays a full-on post-metal song plus two quiet songs. When the Corona virus pandemic was at its peak, Rosetta made known the fact they had already written a follow-up to Utopioid and had recorded part of it but abandoned such plans because 'no band would want to release a potentially defining record if they cannot tour to support it'. It is still unknown whether they will finish it or what they will do next. The run of all of their albums from Satellites to Anaesthete have intros and outros that segue into each other, being a continuation of the previous one. The cycle is interrupted with Quintessential and Utopioid being independent as well. The last song on Wake/Lift has a nod to the R trilogy present on A Determinism. Interestingly enough, they have expressed their name bears no relation to the famous Rosetta stone. The name, though, could allude to the colour russet, in reference to the copper-eyed subject referred to by the singer as "Europa". The singer also used to own a dog; his best friend, who died whilst they were touring Europe named "Rose". The addition of City of Ships (with whom they released a split album) member Eric Jernigan as a second guitarist and clean vocalist, added even more melody and dreamy shoegaze-y quality to their music. Ever since 2005's Satellites was released, Rosetta has been at the forefront and a pivotal band for the post-metal scene worldwide. They managed to become ubiquitous and reached legendary status as their heroes Isis and Neurosis did, especially with their first three records but subsequent releases have much to offer too for those who want to listen. Quintessential Ephemera and Utopioid had some impact and hand in the creation of the niche, micro-sub-genre of "post-shoegaze" (post-metal - shoegaze) which is somewhat related to "doomgaze". The original and constant lineup: Michael Armine - vocals, sound manipulation; James Matthew Weed - guitar, violin; David Grossman - bass guitar, vocals; Bruce McMurtrie Jr. - drums. Discography: Demo - 2003/2004 The Galilean Satellites (2xCD) - Full-length 2005 Project Mercury (split w/ Balboa) - 2007 Wake/Lift - Full-length 2007 Cleansing Undertones of Wake/Lift - Companion to Wake/Lift 2007 Three Way Split w/ East of the Wall & Year of No Light - 2009 A Determinism of Morality - Full-length 2010 Rosetta / Restorations - Split 2010 Junius / Rosetta - Split 2011 City of Ships / Rosetta - Split 2012 The Anaesthete - Full-length 2013 Flies to Flames - EP 2014 Quintessential Ephemera - Full-length 2015 Rosetta: Audio/Visual Original Score - Soundtrack 2015 A Dead-Ender's Reunion - Compilation 2016 Utopioid - Full-length 2017 Rosetta on Audiotree Live - EP 2018 Sower of Mind - EP 2019 Terra Sola - EP 2019 http://www.rosettaband.com http://rosettaband.tumblr.com 2. For the female-fronted Japanese visual-kei band, see the Ｒｏｓｅｔｔａ page. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

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…shrink me down again