Diversions Music Review: 2009-10

The Beast

An unlikely fusion of jazz and hip-hop, Durham’s The Beast turned heads with its  fearless debut CD, Silence Fiction.

Emcee Pierce Freelon’s free-flowing verses transport themes of social justice while avoiding lectures. Eric Hirsh carries Freelon’s unrestrained character to the keys with a jazzy attitude and prolific musicianship. — Joseph Chapman

Hear Here: The Triangle

Hear Here wasn’t the first assemblage of local talent, but it was one of the best in recent memory. Producer B.J. Burton whittled each band’s sound to near-perfection — from the harmonies on The Never’s “Littlest Things” to the frenzied guitars on Colossus’ “Sunglasses in Space,” it demonstrated that the Triangle is anything but homogenous. — Linnie Greene

Tooth/The Claw

It’s rare that bands go out in their prime. And while it might have stopped Tooth short of all it could do, Tooth’s final recorded material, placed on half of this Tooth/The Claw split, demonstrates everything that was great about this Durham metal band. J-Me Guptill preaches his all-too-logical apocalypse as riffs descend like Southern-fried hell fire. — Jordan Lawrence

Horseback

Is it an experiment in feedback? Is it black metal? Is it a display of understated guitar prowess? It’s all of the above. Horseback’s The Invisible Mountain is without question the best local record to have come out during this school year. Raw and tense with crushing metal vocals, it also manages to be an entrancing odyssey. Talk about multi-tasking. — JL

The Bronzed Chorus

This duo from Greensboro churns out a heavy dose of post-rock jams that simmer with aggression and energy. Drummer  and keyboardist Brennan O’Brien and guitarist Adam Joyce excel at creating a buildup of rhythmic and melodic tensions that spiral out into hazy jams. It’s the musical equivalent of your favorite thrill-inducing rollercoaster. — Anna Norris