MUSIC REVIEW: Vie Jester, Etches in Aether

Music doesn’t need to be mind-bendingly challenging, or have some deep meaningful message; although the best of it typically is. In a pop society that has replaced the English language with emoji’s and transgressive and provocative themed music with soda commercials and Disney owned sports networks, it's a welcome change, to discover a band that doesn’t base their output on sheer volume and amplified clichés. Enter Vie Jester.

Like Chris Cornell playing guitar with Satan, Vie Jester’s current EP, Etches in Aether, is a powerful, intense and at times, sublimely uneasy, journey. With a sound focused heavily on layers; vocals and guitars nestled on top of each other, heart pounding drums wrestling with themselves, this three piece power trio, progressively weaves meaningful lyrics, razor sharp instrumentation and builds to a hard rock crescendo. In five tunes, clocking in at slightly over 25 minutes, Etches in Aether, winds up being a work of art so deep, that there may be no bottom.

I must admit that I am not your average metal rock fan, being a female, having grown up with disco and 80’s wave and leaning toward that ultimate F word: 50 years of age. Vie Jester, however, is gripping, converting even the uninitiated into the ways of metal.

My first experience with Etches in Aether comes while sitting on the Dirty Thirty, which in San Francisco lingo, is the 30/Stockton bus. It’s a bus that always sucks, and not in a good way. True story; one day an Asian lady was boarding the bus with a live chicken, when told she could not bring livestock on public transit, she promptly snapped its neck and boarded the bus. I avoid the Dirty Thirty, as much as possible, but when necessity dictates I must use it, I need a good distraction. Today, it is Pasadena hard rockers, Vie Jester.

The five song EP opens with Saint, a roiling, often tense piece that simultaneously remains calm and contemplative. It is a tune content to emerge and exist rather than to sweep all before it or punctuate a point.

A standout track is Meridians; a strangely destructive tone combined with apocalyptic joy; a kind of celebration of being alive, an anthem for those, who although, trapped in career and suburbia – can still find true happiness within their bondage.

As mentioned earlier, I may not be the best reviewer for this genre of music, but I do know how to listen to music, to actually hear it. Vie Jester gives us a piece of work, akin to NIN—(Trent Reznor was and remains a guilty pleasure of mine, like wine and chocolate in my bathtub.) So, like NIN, there are some things you must do to, really listen, to hear and love Etches in Aether.

1) You need a great sound system, or at least a good pair of headphones. These four tunes incorporate cutting edge instrumentation and vocals that will make the hair of your neck stand on end. You WILL miss this stuff…the depth of the album, without good sound.

2: You will need to treat this album like you are going to a symphony, not an arena show. Get comfortable and relax. Allow yourself to get lost in the music. Plop into your bean bag chair or eco-friendly, ergonomic recliner and let Vie Jester lead you to the next exceptional note, the next moment,

3: Listen to it over and over. Each time a new layer will present itself. This album has a multi-layered texture to it, and demands to be listened to differently than pop music. Savor the atmosphere, the lusty and powerful to the moderate and restrained.

It’s a gamble to create something challenging and maybe even excellent, as Vie Jester has done. Will anyone listen? Will anyone get it? Will anyone dig it? After my third listen to Etches in Aether, the intricate lacing of voice and guitar, the texturing of drums and bass, the slow burn and build of tension and release, that feeling that you have just taken a nose dive into the icy fjord of your soul, perhaps I am becoming the very model of their audience, after all.

#Turntable