ALBUM REVIEW: Dytopian Future Movies, "Inviolate"

By: Peter Morsellio

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 02/03/2020

Label: Lasairfhíona Records

“Inviolate” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. Countenance
2. Wreckage
3. Rules
4. All the Light
5. Kathleen
6. Black Cloaked
7. Ten Years

The Review:

The juxtaposition of beauty and dissonance in music is an often attempted and often failed venture. It takes a very special creative mind to find the connection points to make that puzzle fit together. On “Inviolate”, the ghostly sophomore effort from Dystopian Future Movies, this puzzle is completed. 

“Inviolate” drips with haunting beauty in its ethereal vocals and silky atmospheres.  Melodies are sweet and floating, with harmonies that seep deep into the listener's mind, wrapping them in a comfortable embrace.  On the other side of that same coin there is a cold darkness, chilling to the bones. A blackened void that swallow’s life. This is the marriage that Dystopian Future Movies consummates on this album. A powerful emotional output balanced with the bleak grey of cacophonous insanity.

Notes on this album range from ethereal pop to a dreamily melodic post rock to the dark chaotic soundscapes of black metal.  These diverse offerings are handled with the delicate care with which one would tend any garden. And like a good garden, the individual parts are not on display as the stars of the show, but rather the picture as a whole. There is no melody and cacophony, there is no hard and soft. Neither beauty nor ugliness. Neither darkness nor light.  Rather, Dystopian Future Movies creates something entirely its own from all of these parts.

This may not be an album for everyone. Some will claim it too soft; others might call it strange. But these terms are walls of our own construction. We cannot let them contain us. “Inviolate” is not dream pop, it is not post rock.  It's not sludge and it's not black metal.  Rather, Dystopian Future Movies has crafted a work of art that is wholly its own.

Band info: facebook || bandcamp

ALBUM REVIEW: Russian Circles, "Blood Year"

By: Eeli Helim

Album Type: Full-length
Date Released: 02/08/19
Label: Sargent House

”Blood Year” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. Hunter Moon

2. Arluck

3. Milano

4. Kohokia

5. Ghost on High

6. Sinaia

7. Quartered

The Review:

 "Blood Year" is Russian Circles' seventh album and fourth released by Sargent House. Three years after the instrumental post-metal-ish acts' last album "Guidance", the trio returns in a stronger and more vivid form, matching and even surpassing all the expectations one could've possibly set for the new album.

Whenever bringing up the subject of contemporary, metal-rooted instrumental music, it's practically impossible to survive through the discussion without mentioning Russian Circles. The band's influence on the scene is indisputable, having released a strong and powerful set of albums with unbroken quality standards within the past fifteen years. "Blood Year" provokes haunting imagery of empty streets and post-apocalyptic ruins, much like their earlier albums, but with a more dismal and moving elegance.

After the intro track "Hunter Moon" built entirely on ambient guitars, a rhythmical drum beat and bass lead set off the second track "Arluck", also giving the tone for the rest of the album. Built on simple movements and easily comprehensible patterns, the band demonstrates their stronger output right from the beginning, lifting the track amongst the prime picks of "Blood Year". The atmosphere is eerie, even more so than it has been before. This continues on the following pair "Milano" and "Kohokia". The flow is consistent and flawless, and the tracks are structured to appear both interesting and sensible throughout. I also appreciate the fact that they experiment and play around with tones very little; the main weight is on good and clever compositions and organic, natural emotions caused by just that.

"Ghost on High" is an intermission piece similar to the first track, leading seamlessly into "Sinaia", the longest, most varied, and bleakest of the bunch. At this point it's noteworthy to mention that the whole album has its own distinct feel and characteristics that separate it from Russian Circles' past albums. While the melancholic aspects are there, the sadness never gets overwhelming, not on this record at least. "Sinaia" is a genuine post-metal track that despite it's own moments, doesn't leave as permanent mark to your memory as the other tracks. The course is still kept steady, and the final track is guaranteed to floor you completely. "Quartered" seems to partly abandon the emotional side and fill the spot it left with more violent and pummeling drive, bringing the album to end completely somewhere else in contrast to where it began. The track also excels to mirror its name, inducing sensations of having your limbs torn apart for one reason or the other.

The overall feeling is what sets this album well apart from the others, relying on something else rather than your run-of-the-mill aesthetics. It's hard to say if "Blood Year" is Russian Circles' best album to date, but it sure as hell is worth all the repeats and time it takes to listen to it. Reverting back to what I wrote earlier, the level of quality is still higher than most and stays unshaken.

”Blood Year” is available HERE

Band info: facebook 

ALBUM PREMIERE: Lithuanian post metallers Autism declare "Have You Found Peace?"

With their fourth release, Lithuanian post metal band AUTISM have taken their song writing to the new level. Based on a short story, “Have You Found Peace?” explores the tragic concepts of alienation and loss in a 42-minute-long musical journey. The result is a captivating experience of heavy post-rock and atmospheric sludge metal merged with a conceptual scope akin to the works of prog giants like Steven Wilson and Anathema. 

“Have You Found Peace?” is the epitome of the band’s use of cinematic storytelling, and is somewhat of a musical Gesamtkunstwerk, featuring collaborations with bands that AUTISM has performed with in the past. Krzysztof Traczyk, who is the vocalist of Polish post-metal act ROSK, has provided vocals and narration throughout the album, most notably to the second track “No Word”, which carries a heavy Cult of Luna-vibe. Contributing to the same track we find the Lithuanian ambient/noise

artist OORCHACH, while further collaborations involve cult ambient artist Laurynas Jukonis (Girnų Giesmės) and Valdas Voveraitis (ERDVE). The latter intensifies the track “Haunting Recollections” with his moody saxophone phrasings and a blistering solo towards the climax of the track. 

“Have You Found Peace?” is a logical continuation from the previous AUTISM albums, but it transcends anything the band has ever done before. Through a subtle blend of spoken word narratives and a dynamic soundtrack of soaring guitars and enigmatic ambient textures, AUTISM manage to present their story in a truly unique fashion, creating an ambitious statement of their artistry and we’re delighted at THE SLUDGELORD to be able to stream the entire album in full below.  The album will be available to buy from HERE 04/02/2019

Band info: bandcamp ||  facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Grave Lines, “Fed Into The Nihilist Engine"

By: Ernesto Aguilar

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 04/05/2018

Label: New Heavy Sounds

Grave Lines demonstrates irrefutable growth, confidence and deftness with a palette of emotional peaks and valleys.

“Fed Into The Nihilist Engine” CD//DD//2LP track listing:

1). Failed Skin

2). Shame/Retreat

3). Self Mutilation by Fire and Stone

4). Loss/Betrayal

5). Silent Salt

6). Loathe/Displace

7). The Greae

8). Guilt/Regret

9). The Nihilist Engine

The Review:

The United Kingdom's doom masters Grave Lines smashed their way onto the scene in 2016 with its "Welcome to Nothing," a debut that reveled in its sweltering power – blistering drums courtesy of Julia Owen, Jake Harding's disparate vocal attack and a style that puts a noise/sludge pace on you that would make Vasyl Lomachenko himself proud. And, happily, the band is back with "Fed Into The Nihilist Engine," a rugged return if ever there was one.

Grave Lines is intriguing because of its changeups. "Failed Skin," the album's 14-plus-minute opener, is by far the longest cut, and it is melting as it is impregnable. Don't let its gentle, loping opening chords fool you. As the bass kicks in, Harding descends from the heavens, with his punctuated and flaring vocals that rattle you out of your slumber. That clarity of voice carries on to "Shame Retreat," an ethereal song that makes the most of its strengths.

Grave Lines is unctuous with its heavy tracks, which slosh in hardcore influences, such as "Self Mutilation by Fire and Stone." You also witness promise with its gracefully constructed folk-tinged songs like "Loss Betrayal" and "Loathe Displace." The sharper among us might ask if the group is pining to be a metal team or more a hard rock band with departures like this. And in fairness there may be some attention to album arrangement, or else it becomes heavy-to-lighter-to-heavy-to-lighter song, rinse and repeat. Nevertheless the tracks themselves are strong, devouring your ears and imagination.

Now into its second album, Grave Lines demonstrates irrefutable growth, confidence and deftness with a palette of emotional peaks and valleys. As "The Nihilist Engine" closes out the album, it is impossible to avoid the many paths before the group, as well as one's own curiosity for what's next.

“Fed Into The Nihilist Engine” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Rosetta - "Utopioid"

By: Mark Ambrose

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 01/09/2017 | 12/01/2018

Label: The Anaesthete (CD//CS//DD) |

Pelagic Records (LP)

“Utopioid” is beautiful, challenging, at times catchy, and more emotionally resonant that a great deal of music I hear in a given year.  But if you’re measuring for sheer heaviness – aural, conceptual, even spiritual – “Utopioid” is heavy as a dying star, and just as terrifying in its beauty.

“Utopioid” CS//CD//DD//LP track listing

1. Amnion

2. Intrapartum

3. Neophyte Visionary

4. King Ivory Tower

5. 54543

6. Détente

7. Hypnagogic

8. Qohelet

9. Intramortem

The Review:

We’ve all heard that anecdote that the Eskimo have a huge number of words for “snow”, supposedly for each subtle variation only people surrounded by frozen tundra would notice on a regular basis.  If only there was a similar glossary for types of “heaviness” that could serve as a sort of musical Esperanto for metal enthusiasts.  We tend to flatten out the term so much that it becomes kind of meaningless – the tri-tone opening of “Black Sabbath”, the breakneck shred of Converge’s “Concubine”, and the menacing rainfall of Slayer’s “Raining Blood” are all quintessentially “heavy” moments in metal music.  It can be an easy shorthand in some cases, denoting dissonance, harsh vocals, or low end guitar riffing, but by boxing “heavy” or “metal” into some confined structure, we’d eliminate some truly haunting, melodic, beautiful, but undeniably heavy outliers.  Case in point: Philadelphia’s Rosetta, who have been crafting “metal for astronauts” for over a decade.  On their sixth release, “Utopioid”, Rosetta push the emotional limits of melodic post-metal without abandoning their heavy bona fides, albeit in ways that may be so alien to some metalheads that they’ll flatly reject the metal tag whatsoever.

               

Make no mistake, Rosetta lurks at the periphery of metal orthodoxy.  Interludes and codas like “Amnion”, “54543” and “Intramortem” are more Sigur Ros than Neurosis.  The clean vocals, in both their register and placement in the mix, almost subsumed by mirrored guitar harmonies at some points, are akin to the earlier waves of emo – I was consistently thinking of Christie Front Drive, Mineral, and Sunny Day Real Estate.  But just when the pathos threatens to turn sour or twee, the progressions often turn sour, introducing dissonance, minor chords, or gut-wrenching screamed vocals.  “Intrapartum”, in particular, vacillates between ethereal and eerie, with a gang vocal closing that is intense and triumphant.

               

The prevalence of vocals on “post” anything can be a barrier to entry for some enthusiasts, but the members of Rosetta seem to be keenly aware of economy and the qualities of a voice as an instrument – the majority of the hour-plus album is dominated by guitars and effects, while even the screamed vocals seem precisely “composed” within the strictures of each track.  Each ragged syllable seems a part of a symphonic whole, while the guitars often track the clean vocal progressions, especially in verses.

               

The whole “metal for astronauts” tag feels kind of silly, but it’s remarkably apt.  The reverb-laden, echoey feel of everything screams “space”, while the emotional heft feels outside of temporal concerns – there’s something almost spiritual (I found myself writing down “cinematically cosmic”) at work in the balance between angelic singing and primitive shouts.  Maybe it’s just the sheer amount of time and exploratory leeway Rosetta grants their respective components that feels untethered from gravity.  Occasionally the explorations veer off unsuccessfully, like the meandering ambient coda of “Hypnagogic” that is begging for a triumphant reprise.  But then a track like “Qohelet” crashes through a finale as effective and thrilling as any I’ve heard in 2017 and the whole experiment works.  Particular praise has to be given to the rhythm section of Dave Grossman and Bruce McMurtrie Jr., whose precise bass work and drumming, respectively, anchors the band through numerous space rock outbursts.  Without steady hands at the wheel, the dual guitar lines of Eric Jernigan and Matt Weed could meander into incoherence – instead of the near transcendence they achieve on track after track.

               

Of course, the drawback to any “post-metal” album is the tendency to overstay its welcome, and “Utopioid” does that for exactly seven minutes and fifty-three seconds on the final track, “Intramortem”.  It isn’t a bad number, per se, but has the distinct disadvantage of following the natural climax of the record, “Qohelet”.  The resulting ambience and repeated builds has a lot of potential but never has that moment of resolution that makes the piece worth sticking around for.  Rather, it feels like a neat bonus track that should be absorbed well after you’ve caught your breath from the remarkable ending of “Qohelet”.

               

So is “Utopioid” a “metal” release?  I can’t say for certain.  It’s beautiful, challenging, at times catchy, and more emotionally resonant that a great deal of music I hear in a given year.  But if you’re measuring for sheer heaviness – aural, conceptual, even spiritual – “Utopioid” is heavy as a dying star, and just as terrifying in its beauty.

“Utopioid” is available digitally here via bandcamp (CS//DD//CD) here and LP here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

REVIEW: Lovely Wife - "Problem Rock" [EP]

By: Ernesto Aguilar

Album Type: EP

Date Released: 06/08/2017

Label: Cruel Nature Records

Taken in together, you have a smoothed out jam band-esque stoner rock experience, and it is a good one.

"Problem Rock" CS//DD track listing

1. Export To Disk

2. Filth

3. Ting

The Review:

Beguiling, as it is perplexing, Lovely Wife drop a new three-song EP for your listening pleasure. And it is a really nice one, but it is not without a few questions.

This is the follow up to the group's three-song debut EP, "Lou Reed is Dead." That package was mostly a post-rock affair that clocked in at just under half an hour. It flew under the radar for many, but came across as promising.

The new release features virtually a complete change in band members and another trio of psychedelic infused heavy rock. It feels a bit unpolished and even rough at points, though it is likely a production touch. Taken in together, you have a smoothed out jam band-esque stoner rock experience, and it is a good one.

Lovely Wife's challenge is finding that right mix of personnel. It is a difficulty faced by a ton of new groups: you think you have the right mix of people until it isn't, and even when you do, musical chemistry takes time.

Although the lineup is about wholly different from its debut, even "Problem Rock" has rotating members throughout the record. Joe Garrick is the only consistent player here. The sprawling, 13-minute centerpiece "Export to Disk" features Garrick with drummer Rob Woodcock (who returns from his appearance on the title track of "Lou Reed is Dead") and guitarist Jon O'Neill. On the other two tracks, the lineups flip completely, with Garrick joining vocalist James Watts and drummer Skylar Gill.

With Garrick presumably the leader of the band, you have a talented bassist. "Problem Rock" makes his skill evident. Still, you might be inclined to wonder how much Lovely Wife will get even better as it matures, nails its core membership and grows into tighter material.

"Problem Rock” is available here

Band info: facebook || bandcamp

ALBUM REVIEW: Ohhms - "The Fool"

By: Stephen Murray

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 31/03/2017

Label: Holy Roar Records

“The Fool” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). Shuffle, Cut and Reveal

2). The Magician

3). The Hanged Man

4). The World

5). The Lovers

6). The Hierophant

The Review:

This is not doom. Even less is it sludge. The influence of those genres can be felt, but to understand Ohhms under those terms is misleading.

Three years on since Ohhms' first appearance outside the rehearsal room, it is still unclear who first applied these labels to the band, though there's no doubt that these are labels the group have done nothing to eschew. Speaking outside Camden's Black Heart in 2014 before their second ever gig, the deal with Holy Roar not yet in the bag, vocalist Paul had admitted as much. "To be quite honest I would be happy to be lumped in with the doom thing just because it's different and there [are] elements of doom in [our music]," he had said. And yet, out of the then 30 minute set they had, only eight minutes were described by Paul as doom. He'd timed it. So what are they? "Classic rock, if anything," he'd said then.

'The Fool' is the band's third release and the first that they consider to be a full-length, and the description 'classic rock' still sounds fairer than what is more usually thrown at them. There are definite hints of Pink Floyd’s more reflective moments, along with some guitar work that would not upset the 80s hard rock applecart. Though there is more going on here, and not just Dan working his way through his extensive pedal board of boutique guitar effects, or indeed anything particularly progladytic. Where Ohhms skirt the sludgey-doomy influence, it is filtered through post-something-or-other and is akin to grunge.

There they are in good company; though rather different, Germany’s Aleph Null also came in on a stoner tip but sound like the debt is actually made out in the name of grunge and psych rock, and that is no bad thing. To anyone who has been following Ohhms these last few years, this record will feel a very natural and subtle mutation. Paul still has his self-professed “singy and shouty, never screamy” vocals pushed through echo. Not psych rock meltiness, but a big room-feel. Chainy’s restless and nomadic bass still wanders widely in search of home. Max still offers a lyrical range of punctuation and backbone, though has stepped it up on the faster moments in “The Fool”. But despite the ready familiarity of the sound, the word that fell from my lips as the first listen came to a close was “surprising.”

One of the most striking things about this album is not the penultimate track, 'The Lovers,' (which, on first hearing, you would be forgiven for thinking a song penned by Phil Collins for a Disney soundtrack had somehow snuck its way in -- that may read as though it is intended to be a slur. It isn't.) Rather, it is most striking for its echoes of the band four fifths of Ohhms emerged from: The Babies Three.

Before taking on this review I had decided not to wake the dead; to allow Ohhms to be judged independently of that past. But not only do some of the guitar lines seem to recall that heritage, but the lyrics to the album’s closer, ‘The Hierophant,’ are lifted wholesale from File Under Retaliation’s ‘Rotten Apples’. As the lyric says: “Recurring themes throughout my life.”

The original mission statement may have been Swans circa “1984”, but it was never quite to be. Instead there’s something more organic. Ohhms shoot new blooms from deep roots, laying out their generational history as they evolve as musicians.

“The Fool” is available here

 Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Palmer - "Surrounding The Void"

By: Charlie Butler

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 24/02/2017

Label: Czar of Bullets

Over the course of an hour, the band chart an ever-shifting course through crushing riffs, head-scratching math metal, serene post-rock and immense soundscapes. It’s an exhilarating journey that makes me wonder how a band of this quality have stayed under the radar for so long.  It’s definitely time for Palmer to emerge from the shadows to gain the respect they deserve.

“Surrounding The Void” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. Home Is Where I Lead You
2. Misery 

3. Divergent

4. Artein
5. Digital Individual
6. Fate_Hope
7. Import Unity
8. Rising
9. Implosion

The Review:

Swiss post-metal powerhouse, Palmer, celebrate their sixteenth year of existence with a monstrous new LP, “Surrounding The Void”. Over the course of an hour, the band chart an ever-shifting course through crushing riffs, head-scratching math metal, serene post-rock and immense soundscapes. It’s an exhilarating journey that makes me wonder how a band of this quality have stayed under the radar for so long.

“Home Is Where I Lead You” is a bold opening statement, an epic construction of whirlwind riffs and swings in mood that recalls much-missed compatriots Kruger and Knut. There are also hints of the mammoth compositions of Zatokrev, whose Frederyk Rotter released “Surrounding The Void” via his Czar of Bullets label. “Misery” and “Digital Individual” inflict similar damage while “Divergent” and “Rising” find Palmer sprawling into the outer limits. These two behemoths push the ten minute mark, with the former embracing droned-out cosmic sounds, while the latter culminates in an almost-anthemic, melodic climax.

“Artein” shows Palmer are equally effective when exercising restraint. An understated instrumental that subtly twists and turns, the band show they can be captivating without having to resort to cheap quiet/loud post-rock tricks. Subdued closer “Implosion” exists in the same realm, building layers of hypnotic guitar into a tower of ambient sound, charred around the edges by smouldering distortion.

“Import Unity” is the only slight mis-step here, an attempt at a more concise straight-ahead metal track that doesn’t quite come off. The virtuoso shredding at the end of the track is particularly jarring and at odds with the rest of the LP. 

“Surrounding The Void” is a complex beast that covers a wide sonic spectrum from dense heaviness to spectral calm. It’s definitely time for Palmer to emerge from the shadows to gain the respect they deserve.

“Surrounding The Void” is available here

Band info: official || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: King Woman - "Created in the Image of Suffering"

By: Ben Fitts

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 24/02/2017

Label: Relapse Records

At times, the album crawls and squirms under your skin like a maggot. At other times, it is an uplifting, celestial journey “Created in the Image of Suffering” is one of the most daring, fascinating, inventive and immersing albums to be released in a while.

“Created in the Image of Suffering” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. Utopia
2. Deny
3. Shame
4. Hierophant
5. Worn
6. Manna
7. Hem

The Review:

Metal is no longer about excess. Colossal riffs, blurry tempos and wounded demon vocals are still acceptable, but modern metal is changing into a more subtle assault. Nuanced composition and sonic manipulation define the forefront of metal innovation today, and these contemporary qualities are perhaps best exemplified by the San Francisco based quartet King Woman. The band’s debut full length album, “Created In the Image of Suffering”, is a chilling blend of misty, post-rock sonority and ominous doom metal.

King Woman is fronted by former Whirr vocalist Kristina Esfandiari, and her shoegaze background shines clearly through the album. Her vocals walk the line between the ethereal and the ghastly, cutting through layers of dripping wet guitar tones like a spectre flying through crumbling walls. Esfandiari’s haunting vocals are best displayed on the chimy, airy track “Hierophant” and the album’s slow burning closer, “Hem”. However, for all their post-rock elements and astral soundscapes, King Woman still deliver bruising metal riffs and crushing doom, as evidenced by the album’s massive opener, “Utopia”.

On the vanguard of metal today, “Created in the Image of Suffering” is an album that pushes the boundaries on what it means to be metal. At times, the album crawls and squirms under your skin like a maggot. At other times, it is an uplifting, celestial journey. But it always challenges metallic convention, exploring textures, attitudes and musical practices generally not even touched in metal. “Created in the Image of Suffering” is one of the most daring, fascinating, inventive and immersing albums to be released in a while. 

“Created In the Image of Suffering” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: If These Trees Could Talk - “The Bones of a Dying World”

By Brandon Green

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 03/06/2016

Label: Metal Blade Records

This record is a fluid-flowing masterpiece that builds upon complex, progressive dreamscapes with brilliant artwork reminiscent of the music within. It is clear the band, although instrumental, is thematic in the sense they are making a statement regarding environmental concerns and climate change. The music feels bleak, hopeful, and wonderfully introspective.

“Bones of a Dying World” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. Solstice
2. Swallowing Teeth
3. Earth Crawler
4. After the Smoke Clears
5. The Here and Hereafter
6. Iron Glacier
7. The Giving Tree
8. Berlin
9. One Sky Above Us

The Review:

Few bands are capable of capturing the icy and frigid atmosphere of the winter months while inspiring hearth-fire warmth in song structures and rhythm. After many listens of 2009’s “Red Forest,” I found myself frequently thinking it was a release that was hard to top, however, “Bones of a Dying World” does just that. Many people may think this release is repeated territory for the band; but this album feels like more. This record is a fluid-flowing masterpiece that builds upon complex, progressive dreamscapes with brilliant artwork reminiscent of the music within. It is clear the band, although instrumental, is thematic in the sense they are making a statement regarding environmental concerns and climate change. The music feels bleak, hopeful, and wonderfully introspective.

“Bones of a Dying World” is an hour long journey full of melody, melancholy, and cinematic post-metal. Hailing from Akron, Ohio, If These Trees Could Talk takes advantage of deep, layered sound full of reverberation and crisp guitar passages weaving in and out of the intense rhythm underneath. Overall, the album has a steady moderate pace with the majority of the songs maintaining catchy, melodic, clean guitar passages. The album also introduces a welcomed amount of distorted and heavy riffs built on top of the clean compositions, something only attainable with their trio of guitars. The group seems to stick to utilizing delay effects with long feedback trails; however, the band delivers a higher understanding of complexity by letting the effects organically enhance the amazing compositions.

The group’s strength relies on intense build up before pummeling the listener with overwhelming and hauntingly powerful riffs. Variation is a strong component of their songwriting, and can be seen throughout the compositions on the album. “Bones of a Dying World” goes by quickly, and I frequently found myself pressing play again for the ominous reverb-soaked journey. The album’s second track, “Swallowing Teeth,” heavily showcases the band’s ability to make the listener lose track of time.  The atmosphere created in their song structures make the listener frequently feel like time passes so much slower as the music sets in, filling the brain full of visions of wandering an icy lake under intense grey skies.

The drums were an interesting touch for me on this record specifically from their simplistic yet huge sound emphasized by the heavy hitting playstyle of Zack Kelly. The massive ambience created by the cymbal work added a ton of character to the guitar textures, and the careful construction of rhythms locked in with the bass really drove home some extremely heavy moments. My only slight criticism of the record is that I wish the bass was not so buried beneath the beautiful guitar work.  There were some extremely inspiring moments between the bass and drums that I wish would have shined through a little more.

The impressiveness of this record really set in during my favorite track, “Iron Glacier.” The song underneath all the ambience and build-up is immensely catchy and extremely heavy. While the performance is deliberate and borderline monstrous at times, the band throughout the album displays just the right amount of aggression. I can only imagine that a live performance from this band would not only be amazing, but could potentially be deeply personal and spiritual for many listeners of post-metal/rock. For a genre somewhat still in the infant stages, If These Trees Could Talk conducts with absolute authority and delivers a potentially timeless record. An album perfectly suited for the winter time; throw on your headphones and check this one out. They absolutely deserve your support.

“Bones of a Dying World” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

FFO: Pelican, Russian Circles, God is an Astronaut, This Will Destroy You