This album came out back in May, so I am glad I found it clicking around Bandcamp. I really liked this band's 2019 album. This time around things are darker and more organic with less of the atmosphere which previously reminded me of the Gathering. Thanks to Jackie Gantz bringing her cello to the party there are sweeping post-rock dynamics expanding the sonic zip-code way past the normal Sabbath pandering of the genre. They push this pretty far out of the scope of metal on "New Sadder You" but soaring vocal melodies make this stick and carry a great deal of emotional weight. This brings us to an album that is emotionally heavy more than it is heavy metal. The song takes a wide swathe of dynamic shifts.
"Faux Savior" sounds like it could be about politics. Much like politics the song is depressing. The vocals are chanted in a choral manner. "Otto's Song" almost sounds like something Pink Floyd would have done. There is more of a post-rock shimmer than what Gilmour was doing, but I think Pink Floyd created post-rock before post-rock was a thing so there is that. "How Rude" is the first song that commits to going into a more metallic place, with snarled vocals and the intent to chug. Things stay weird on "Heed Me" which drones for bulk of the song, so it's not one of the album's most dynamic moments;
They glide into the dusk on the last two songs which work well but have a similar intensity to Portishead, which is not a bad thing, it just might not be the direction you were expecting. The vocals are left to carry things, and they are equipped to do so, as the gentle weaves itself around the misty waters this floats over. The guitar tones are great. In some ways it also makes me think of the Cowboy Junkies. The end of the last song does find itself building toward a more dramatic mood that this album often reaches for. I will give this album a 9.5, as it's one of the darker more gripping moods I have heard from a post-rock leaning album this year.
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