Date Released: June 04th 2022. Record Label: Self Released. Formats: CD/DD
Crown Shyness: Tracklisting
Rain
Rust
Us
Heaven In My Desire
Moz #
Am I There?
Buildings
All These Ghosts
Members
Beppe Procida, Vocals, Guitar
Francesco Jacopo Bizzoca - Guitar
Paolo Ormos - Drums, Background Vocals on Am I There
Review
Post-Rock/Post-Stoners A Violet Pine new album Crown Shyness was released earlier this year and it passed me by. The album is a mixture of heavy Ambient based Post-Rock themes and stylish Stoner Rock grooves. The vocals whilst good at the start only become more confident and focused a few songs into the album with the music being the real standout of the album.
A Violet Pine excels the most when the aggressive and muscular slabs of Gloomy Post-Rock/Stoner riffs appear which you get a decent taste of within the superb opening song Rain. The song is a mixture of 90's Alt Rock and mid 00's aggressive Alt Metal grooves with the Post-Whatever themes leading the way. The song can be a bit topsy-turvy with the QUIET vs LOUD dynamics of the song. The song does end up on an exciting finish.
Second song Rust is perhaps more Post-Metal with a trippy Shoegaze or Doomgaze flow to the song. The song is quite FUZZY and DISTORTED which doesn't bury the Ambient Post-Rock vision of the band under a ton of reverb. Everything works surprisingly well with each other as the band bring a well measured style of Post-Rock and distorted Post-Stoner vibes. The trippy effects are another solid addition to A Violet Pine's creative journey they take upon the album.
Third song Us is the longest track on the album running near the 6.30 minute mark and it's an excellent journey of different creative styles within the Post-Rock and Post-Metal arena with flashes of solid Stoner Rock/Metal passages. Though, the song starts very laid-back and not the destructive force of nature that awaits the listener on the second half of the song. The last few moments are some of the heaviest and finest parts of the album.
The other tracks on the album follow the LIGHT vs HEAVY dynamic to a fine art for the majority of the songs especially on Moz #, Am I There, and Buildings. There is a subtle tenderness to A Violet Pine when the more shoegaze parts appear and dictate the majority of the action. Beppe's vocals don't change much during the course of the album but they do become ever more confident as the album moves to its exciting climax.
Maybe, the record could have been slightly heavier in the Post-Metal parts of the album but there's more than enough trippy Ambient Sounds, Shoegaze effects and Post-Whatever grooves to keep it feeling superbly entertained. With this being their fourth album in nine years, A Violet Pine are obviously doing something right and Crown Shyness is simply a damn good album. No matter how you look at it.
If you want your Post-Rock or Post-Stoner band with a little more edginess to them then A Violet Pine are a great band to spend some time with. As they do create some highly original and wonderful sounds of their own.
Excellent and Highly Recommended.
Words by Steve Howe
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