post metal / doom
A change of musical direction. Those few simple words can strike fear into most music fans hearts. Especially if that band has built up a fan base because of the style of music that the band play. So, when an established band release an album which has ‘a change of musical direction’ this can be a scary thing. One of the things which can happen in this instance is that it alienates the very people who liked the band in the first place, and they stop listening to that band, this is quite sad and in my view a very narrow way of looking at music in general. The other way it can go, is that people embrace the change with an open mind and find things in the particular album on which to hang their hat, as chances are, if they like the band in the first place, there will be something in there which reminds them why they liked the band in the first place. Obviously, this is quite a simple way of looking at things and I’m aware there is a lot of nuance in any change, but in my experience, people are very weary of change in general, let alone something in which they are deeply invested.
All of which is a very long-winded way of saying that today’s album Siderael Pt. One by Italian post-metal/sludge metallers Post Vorta is a very different album from the one that I was expecting., thanks to those 5 words I mentioned earlier.
We are eased into the change quite gently and lead song Through 4k lenses starts with an ominous sounding piano, so far so metal. That is until an enchanting female voice rings out together with burst of flutes and swirling choral chants in the background. It’s fleeting, unnerving, and yet intriguing. The song builds on its emotional investment as the drums come crashing in creating a strong uplifting quality at the end of the song. It’s altogether less metal but still has elements of post-rock in there.
Next song Viper builds the ambience with a simple drum line to start things off. The gorgeous female vocals again give the song an ethereal, gentle feel, but they are tinged with a distinct undercurrent of foreboding. The electronic elements are much more to the fore in this song which builds to a nice mid song explosion before collapsing into a glitchy electronic ambient section. It’s very nicely done.
Following song Spoon feel like the electronica soundscapes introduced on the previous songs are now a much more prominent part of the band’s sound, in fact, you’d be hard pressed to even think of this as listening to a traditional band at all as the songs from this point on are almost exclusively synth driven in a style so prevalent at present.
From then on, the songs all fully embrace the synthwave tendencies and shrug off any notion of metal whatsoever. That’s not to say that the songs are poppy with a light touch, far from it in fact, I found it to be quite the opposite and the songs all have the heavy music stylings of trying to convey the darker emotions of the human psyche.
So, it’s a change of musical direction alright but this has brought about a rather pleasant surprise. If you are put off by the fact that the band no longer play heavy music (whether this is a permanent departure remains to be seen) then you are doing yourself a disservice in passing over what is a rather great album, indeed, I’m not usually one for synthwave but I found myself really liking this album a lot, so, try it for yourself, you may be nicely surprised by what you uncover.
Simon
All of which is a very long-winded way of saying that today’s album Siderael Pt. One by Italian post-metal/sludge metallers Post Vorta is a very different album from the one that I was expecting., thanks to those 5 words I mentioned earlier.
We are eased into the change quite gently and lead song Through 4k lenses starts with an ominous sounding piano, so far so metal. That is until an enchanting female voice rings out together with burst of flutes and swirling choral chants in the background. It’s fleeting, unnerving, and yet intriguing. The song builds on its emotional investment as the drums come crashing in creating a strong uplifting quality at the end of the song. It’s altogether less metal but still has elements of post-rock in there.
Next song Viper builds the ambience with a simple drum line to start things off. The gorgeous female vocals again give the song an ethereal, gentle feel, but they are tinged with a distinct undercurrent of foreboding. The electronic elements are much more to the fore in this song which builds to a nice mid song explosion before collapsing into a glitchy electronic ambient section. It’s very nicely done.
Following song Spoon feel like the electronica soundscapes introduced on the previous songs are now a much more prominent part of the band’s sound, in fact, you’d be hard pressed to even think of this as listening to a traditional band at all as the songs from this point on are almost exclusively synth driven in a style so prevalent at present.
From then on, the songs all fully embrace the synthwave tendencies and shrug off any notion of metal whatsoever. That’s not to say that the songs are poppy with a light touch, far from it in fact, I found it to be quite the opposite and the songs all have the heavy music stylings of trying to convey the darker emotions of the human psyche.
So, it’s a change of musical direction alright but this has brought about a rather pleasant surprise. If you are put off by the fact that the band no longer play heavy music (whether this is a permanent departure remains to be seen) then you are doing yourself a disservice in passing over what is a rather great album, indeed, I’m not usually one for synthwave but I found myself really liking this album a lot, so, try it for yourself, you may be nicely surprised by what you uncover.
Simon
