A Glorified Piece of Blue Sky

It is to Atlas Moth’s great credit that they make this interesting. This is the type of terribly hip, artsy post-sludge- a more euphoric take on Neurosis et. al.- that has established bands such as Isis as a household metal name and in the process threatened to grow decidedly old- at least, in my own cynical opinion. We have already had high-quality releases of this sort from various people this year, including the recent Buried Inside record, which seemed possibly like the last word on the subject as far as I was concerned, not being a huge devotee of this area in the first place. Clever melodies and lengthy, climactic build-ups where the order of the day there and they nailed it, but here the emphasis is more on hooks.

There are definitely times when this sounds a little too close to, say, Oceanic to be all that interesting; brooding and atmospheric crescendos that disperse into heavy, grooving riffs are relied upon, of course. But whilst not really experimenting with that formula, it also has a catchiness that makes it worth relistening to. It’s often about the little touches. Grey Wolves features cleverly worming lead flourishes that wind the track back from sonic morass into a coherent, focused form. Our Sun, Our Saviour, makes clever use of sci-fi sound effects and creepy melody to give a five-minute track a real sense of epic power.

There is also- a pleasant surprise- a good level of variety here. We progress, for example, from the chanting mysticism of Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence, with its slow, crushing minimalism and moaning vocals, to the riotous One Amongst the Wheatfield; a stoner-ish riff-fest with cunningly worked guitar harmonies and a bluesy crunch which begins to almost assume an Iron Monkey-like character when the vocals assume something of a Jonny Morrow-screech.

So, all in all this is a good album. It takes a template which is becoming predictable, and enlivens it with the standard of songwriting. It has an immense feel to it, which is, of course, par for the course with these types of sludge/post-rock groups, but its ideas are varied and charismatic which means that its “epicness” is fully earned rather than contrived with a few big, deep chords. Good work!