West of Neptune (2022)
In 1964, Lou Reed formed The Velvet Underground in upstate New York. The idea of mixing rock music with developing avant garde and pre-punk was unprecedented at that point, and the music scene was flipped on its head when The Velvet Underground & Nico was released in 1967. College students Lou Reed and John Cale would become one of the most influential and in-depth musical case studies in history because of the band they formed at Syracuse University during that cold, northeastern winter. In a similar fashion, Boston's West of Neptune brings together key elements of grunge and metal with a perfect palette for alternative, tastefully chill, and progressive rock music, comparable to that of bands such as craw or Big Black. This creates a perfect storm for any lover or something that will simply keep you tapping your feet (and maybe thrashing your head?).
I spoke with guitarist Iain Standing over text while sitting with my headphones in and my music on blast. If there was one thing Iain made very clear: it is that West of Neptune loves to turn up the volume. Like the aforementioned Lou Reed, Standing is a Syracuse man with two feet in the arts: one professional, one personal. He was the last man to join the original band lineup, and despite what he thought may have been the wrong gig at the wrong time, it turned out to be a mismatch made in Heaven. When I asked Standing how he fell into the band this way, he said, "I was chosen despite being the direct opposite of what they had originally wanted, instead being a noisier, more abstract guitarist. It really pushed us into our current sound which focuses on snaking and subtle shifts into different prog[gressive] ideas."
Along with Standing, DC metal and hardcore vocalist AlonA, hardcore drummer M.G., guitarist Mica Deposit, and bassist Stavros all work together to make music that cranks everything up to eleven. Mica Deposit being the founder of the band, he had clear ideas on what he wanted them to be, but had no way of predicting what they would actually become. Standing described how Deposit was "seeking to combine the Proggier elements of thrash metal bands like Voivod with bludgeoning punk and noise," but in the end how substance and subtlety ended up being the best friend of their ever-progressing sound.
Reed famously quoted, "Music should come crashing out of your speakers and grab you, and the lyrics should challenge whatever preconceived notions that listener has." West of Neptune saw the opportunity to do just this- take a listener's idea of what local rock music is, mold and shape it- and spit it back out into a composition that has new definitions of melody and how rock music can change and develop at any point in time. Standing, on a final note, recalled that "West of Neptune was really built to be the sum of its influences. Not one thing or the other," and it is plain to see that this group has no plans of cookie-cutting any time soon. It's better off that way anyway, because I don't think there is any more room left on this scene for the ordinary
