I’ll admit it: I expected this to be a heap of pretentious guff, the sound of heads meeting sphincters under the ‘progressive’ guise. A decade or so on from the first explosion (in the sky) of neoprog, post-rock and post-metal, I’ve frankly grown weary of so many sincere and po-faced purveyors of expansive but largely soulless instrumental guitar music that trades on atmosphere and slow-building crescendos. Chiming guitars and rolling percussion gets tired after a time.
On their second album, two full years after their debut, Belgian progressive/post-metal act Atmospheres seem to follow the blueprint, to a greater or lesser extent. But they do so with a certain panache, and that’s what counts.
The press release promises the revelation of the band’s ‘extraordinary talent in combining beautiful ambiences and melodies with crunchy riffs and complex arrangements, resulting in ten wildly inventive tracks that will certainly stun and delight fans of progressive rock and post-metal all over the planet.’
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It’s not that good, but it’s certainly accomplished, both in terms of composition and musicianship, and the album succeeds in holding the listener’s attention as the individual tracks form a unified whole, characterised and charted by a succession of delicate passages which lead to sonic vistas of sweeping grandeur.
Atmospheres - The Departure Online
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