Listen To Slint

Spiderland is one of the most acclaimed underground albums of the 1990’s. The critics consider it as THE FIRST TRUE POST-ROCK ALBUM,which opened doors to a great progression in music,reinventing rock without leaving its main ideas behind.Brian McMahan’s voice varied between grunge-likescreams, delicate whispering and a narrating voice,which created a very sublime feel. The mood captured on the album is rather cold and dark. In fact, it is very intense, sometimes seeming to reach the almost suicidal state of depression. There are even rumors that some of the band members of Slint had to be occasionally institutionalized during the album sessions.The songs flow as if Brian McMahan was narrating a story without a happy ending. It contains disturbing aspects of teenage existence. The band members were simple kids at the time. The first two tracks are the less depressive of the collection. Guitar interplay and distortion in the opening track creates a strange and original effect. The guitars literally sound as if spiders or creatures from the deep are awakening and actually crawling over the instruments. The music is constantly building towards a climax with aches and pains along the way until it reaches its energizing finale. The last track, “Good Morning Captain” is the album's finest moment, their most known track, dealing with the loss of friends in a terrible event. The combination of a double-guitar approach with the disturbing narration recreate perfectly such ambience, until the final explosion, with the scream “I’m in hell, I’m in hell, I miss you...” The album as a whole deals with the awareness of difference in the world and the band creates a very depressive atmosphere with the subtle guitar lines. The sound is trembling, tense and nervous. Getting close to the edge but not quite going over it. It may be hard to believe how a group of 4 kids had such a visionary construction of rock, opening doors to bands like Helmet, Tool, and well, all of the post-rock scene. I urge all grunge enthusiasts out there to venture to your local record store and pick up a copy of Slint’s Spiderland. This composition will truly resonate with you for a very long time to come.