Release Date: September 06th 2024. Record Label: Wolves And Vibrancy & Post. Formats: CD/DD/Vinyl
A Distant, Violent Shudder: Tracklisting
1.Grief Rolled in Like a Storm
2.“The old timers said they’d never seen nothin’ like that”
3.Distant/Violent
4.“Sometimes it would be a week before we would see the sun”
5.Sand Bitten Lungs
Members
Jesse Vengrove
Derek Dooley
Ryan Traynor
Matthew Vincenty
Ryan Dooley
Review
Boston, Massachusetts, Instrumental Post-Metallers Glacier return with their new album A Distant, Violent Shudder. This record sees Glacier deconstruct the Post-Metal genre and then rebuild in their own creative image. The record takes the best sounding moments of the last 20 years of the Instrumental Post-Metal scene and sees Glacier try daring new things with their own blend of music.
The sound is quite abstract and does allow the heavier Atmospheric Sludge movements to build naturally whilst bringing a thunderous Ambient energy to the record. Shades of Blackened Doom reside in the background which allows this album to be their most destructive and heaviest record to date. However, there are moments of breathtaking Post-Rock clarity where the dust settles and a more solemn atmosphere appears. The music is mostly Post-Metal but Glacier takes bold risks with their music by employing soundclips, feedback loops and Spaced Out sounds with ice-cold textures appearing.
A Distant, Violent Shudder also has a distorted Post-Rock delivery which is reminiscent of the earlier sounds of Pelican, MONO and Russian Circles with Glacier opting for a more disruptive Sludge Metal tone. The record is wonderfully epic and adventurous with the Progressive backdrop of heavy grizzled guitars and sublime rhythm section powering those frantic grooves to its natural conclusion on each of the individual tracks.
The whole record can be quite groove orientated and even THRASH inspired at times which surprised me when hearing the whole record especially within one of the albums standout tracks “The old timers said they’d never seen nothin’ like that”. As I feel I’m an “OLD TIMER” of HEAVY METAL and this song really did impress me in a great way with the amount of different styles that Glacier employed here even incorporating a fascinating Space Rock sound with harsh Cosmic Doom atmospherics coming into play.
Other great tracks to check out are: Distant/Violent, “Sometimes it would be a week before we would see the sun” and Sand Bitten Lungs which makes up almost the whole album. Glacier constantly seek ways to change their sound for the better whilst paying great respect to the classic sounds of the Instrumental Post-Metal scene. The whole narrative of the record is quite reflective and contemporary even for this being an instrumental record.
A Distant, Violent Shudder is a brilliantly aware social conscience record with a lot to say with Glacier never wasting a single moment by providing intense Post-Rock/Post-Metal sounds that pulls off the perfect balance of LIGHT vs DARK aggressive energy within the whole framework of their music that results in a never-ending display of thought provoking instrumental grooves that will haunt you for a long time to come.
Glacier have perhaps delivered one of the defining Instrumental Post-Metal albums of the last few years.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to Glacier and Trespasser PR for the promo.
A Distant, Violent Shudder will be available to buy on CD/DD/Vinyl via Wolves And Vibrancy & Post from Friday 06th September 2024
Links
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