Twelve Days In June Archive

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Stone Tape Theory, the sixth TDIJ album, is one of the biggest records I’ve heard in a long time, an absolutely pummeling train ride through Hulegaard’s mind, and the world we all find ourselves trapped in at the moment.

From the outset, with “Another Dusk, Another Dawn”, it’s all there. The scope, the delicious riffs, a wall of sound where nothing sounds muddy and everything has a place, the melody, the solos. It’s so satisfying to hear a record and think “he got exactly the sound he wanted - this must be what it sounded like in his head”.

“Bereft” might have been the best song on at least one album of each of Dave’s heroes. I never know where to even focus when this song comes on. The astonishing drum performance? The way the multiple guitar tracks continually change the depth of focus and lead you through the track? Putting a song like this in 10th position on an album of 12 songs means you have more gold than you know what to do with.

In the closer “Echoes”, around the 5 minute mark, Dave gives the people (well, me) what they really want. He plays us out with one of those face-bludgeoning guitar solos, just to make sure you don’t forget that you just took the musical equivalent of a motorcyle ride down the walls of the Grand Canyon.

Despite its regularly morose, melancholy, and pensive subject matter, I found Stone Tape Theory to be, at root, a deeply joyful experience. This is a human being - a team of them, in fact - creating something that can only come from incredibly sharp minds dedicated to something beautiful, years of experience and dedication and skill in service of a vision, emotional honesty, and love.

I love Twelve Days in June, and I fucking love this record.

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