Rope Sect : "Enstrangement"

As a big fan of this band, we have covered every release from this German band, and they have yet to disappoint, so when it popped up in the old inbox there was a great deal of excitement. This project has never been content just settling for one sound and milking it. The album opens with a more familiar sound that picks up closer to where they left off marrying the metallic energy of their picking hand with the melancholy of post-punk. This comes with a cleaner guitar sound and not the overdriven metal tone. They are not metal, though this album does go in a more rock direction. 

With the second song, things begin to shift into an almost progressive rock zip code. There is a more angular mathematics to the way the riffs wind around The vocals remain at a steadfast yet modest croon. The guitar solos that surface are pretty impressive in their melody addition to the song. This album takes multiple listens to sink in and is best digested through headphones, due to where the vocals in the mix. "Nefelibatas' clicked as it had a darker throb amid the wall of jangling guitar encircling the more delicate vocals. The vocals almost have a folk cadence at times. This sets it aside from the typical post-punk adjacent acts that use a starker delivery. It almost reminds me of Opeth's "Damnation" album in this regard, but the drums are more driving there. 

"L'Appel Du Vide" is more driving almost to a punk extent., with the vocals offsetting this mood. The bass playing is more melodic on this one and the song pauses for room to breathe at times."Mementote" finds the band at their most metallic on this album so far, opening with a great deal of bombast before locking into a riff you might expect on a Judas Priest album. The vocals anchor it in their identity. They even lock in plenty of harmonized guitar lines to drive the metal mood home. They continue with palm-muted tension pushing "Massenmench" forward. The vocals play a more subtle back seat to the guitar, making it a little less compelling than the previous song. 

There are more shadows to the sound with which "Hindsight  Bias" is painted. I appreciate the fact they do not follow traditional songwriting structures, while still working subtle hooks into the melodies. The pace picks up for the last song. King Dude lends his voice to it, leaning the song in a more typical post-punk direction. Things do build into a more black metal-influenced passage with harsh vocals set back in the distance, so the guitar melody might prevail.. I will give this album a 9.5, as it is more obtuse with the hooks buried more subtly requiring more time to sink in, but a logical step forward to a band that deserves much more recognition. 

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