Musical Aether

I first heard about Rodrigo y Gabriela about two years ago while I was living up at Ft. Lewis. The acoustic guitar thrashing duo met in Mexico City while playing for the band Tierra Ácida. After some frustration with the limited music scene the pair moved to Dublin, where they made their first album Rodrigo y Gabriela.

The two list as their inspiration Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and several other metal and death metal bands. The odd part about it is that while they play metal, you can hear that inspiration in their “acoustic-thrash” style of guitar playing. Rodrigo and Garbriela play some of the most intense music I’ve ever heard, yet it comes out of two acoustic guitars. Using traditional guitar pounding and knocking, along with heavy chords and solos that will knock you to the ground, the two craft music that mixes the two genres most seperate: Classical and Metal. The juxtaposition is impressive, and perfect.

Their second album 11:11 came out yesterday and unlike many musicians, whose second album is often worse than teh first, Rodrigo y Gabriela have managed to create a full album of new music that carries the torch (lighter?) from their first album. In fact, I would say that it’s better than the first. The pair have added new effects and new sounds to their repertoire and the mastering on this album is brilliant. This album comes at you loud, fast, and hard. If you listen to it on the stereo in your car, and you aren’t driving 15 miles over the speed limit, then you need to turn the radio up!

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