Mustard Gas and Roses (MGR), side project of ISIS guitarist Mike Gallagher is indeed a force to be reckoned with. My mood for his style of ambient metal influenced songs fits in with the likes of Mono, Sigur Ros, and World’s End Girlfriend. 2006’s Nova Lux paints an elegant dreamscape in five movements, with the track titles appropriately simple in I- V roman numerals.
The first track leads in with three minutes of synth strings, eventually fading behind a haunting guitar line. The mood is best described by Gallagher himself on his myspace: “………slow…………..boring………………depressing.” Besides a few specific incarnations, drums are essentially absent on this album. The ambiance is instead created by layered guitar lines, deep rolling gongs, and a few scattered aphex twin ambient style beats (reserved, simple, distorted…).
This is the perfect album for sitting and staring out at the slowly darkening world through a cold window, with a warm drink in hand. Although this word is thrown out way too often, I do not hesitate to call this album entirely Chill. As the last track fades out, the silence suddenly feels full of life, and you are glad for it.
MIND INVERSION 