Braveyoung used to be known as Giant, and as such they carried a rawer, sludgier tune. Giant was a post-rock band, mind you, but of the heavy, dense variety. Braveyoung is still a post-rock band, but have traded in the atmospheric loudness for an emotional wash of somber movements. We Are Lonely Animals, the North Carolina band’s full-length debut, is even similarly removed from 2009′s two-song EP, Bloom, which still contained traces of Giant’s fuzzy muscle, and is laid out as a yearning whisper of dulcet emptiness. Like a study in solitary existence, We Are Lonely Animals employs every critical nuance — slow strings, delicate piano, chilling chord progressions — to create a cascade of elegant, beautiful, and haunting moments that will numb your soul, all of it accompanied by the desolate parlance of such titles as “And No Two Walked Together,” “Our Teeth Are Falling Out,” and “The Weight of Loss is Whole.” I’m reminded of Ulver or No-Man, or even Agalloch’s White EP in some instances, but those are my bearded roots showing. For the more discerning post-rock lover, Braveyoung will probably call to mind Mogwai or Explosions in the Sky, especially on the album’s longest and most devastating track, “The Light Narrows.” Either way, it’s some magnificent mood music.
Earth Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light I
Southern Lord
Ever since they returned from their nine year hiatus with Hex; Or Printing in the Infernal Method in 2005, Earth’s patented drone doom has shown significant trending toward a dark, apocalyptic, Americana sound; they’ve long since replaced the fuzz and feedback of earlier albums with clean, mournful rhythms of a dusty and desolate gothic Western landscape. Their latest, Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light I, follows the conceptual blueprint laid out by Hex, Hibernaculum, and The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull, laying its soul bare, like an old man at the end of his days embracing death beautifully and without any fanfare. It pours (slowly, of course, like molasses) an hour’s worth of rich, hypnotic sustain — thanks in large part to the abundance of soft cello and bass — into five songs (best appreciated as a whole, as usual), punctuated perfectly by weary harmonics that you might swear are crying out to you. While not entirely memorable or new, this album is still good, and Earth’s main man, Dylan Carlson, continues to prove he’s a master craftsman, a man capable of mesmerizing and enlightening us, even when we’ve heard it all before. And yes, Earth fans, that I in the title means that II is on the way.
Listen to “Descent to the Zenith” from Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light I!
A babbling brook; chirping birds; the slow, mournful lament of a cello. Thus, Agalloch’s latest wintry tour is revealed to us, drawn in running watercolours of black and grey. Marrow of the Spirit, just the band’s fourth full-length in 13 years and first since 2006′s Ashes Against the Grain, thrives on a cold and desolate atmosphere the band has come to make distinctly their own through a hybrid of progressive folk and black metal, meaning songs like “Into the Painted Grey,” “The Watcher’s Monolith,” and “Ghosts of the Midwinter Fires” sound like wolves carefully devouring frost-bitten corpses while the album’s grand opus, the 17-and-a-half minute “Black Lake Nidstång” and its closer “To Drown,” swirl around you in whispers of smoke from a pit of dying embers, the former eventually roaring back to life, the latter succumbing to its inevitable extinction. Marrow of the Spirit is incredibly rich and powerful in scope, weaving chilling intricacies with brutal ferocity for a devotedly earthly sound no doubt enhanced by its analog recording. Not just an impressive album by Agalloch standards, but an impressive album by any standards.
Listen to “The Watcher’s Monolith” from Marrow of the Spirit!
Braveyoung
Earth
Agalloch