Release Date: May 30th 2025. Record Label: Argonauta Records. Formats: CD/DD/Vinyl
Bakeneko - Tracklisting
1.The Weight Of A Thousand Thoughts
2.Hic Sunt Dracones
3.Hungerstein
4.Rond De Sorcière
5.Foehn
6.Klania
7.Last Breath Before The End
Members
Florent Sicard: Guitars
Dimitri Even: Bass
Clément Laguarrigue: Drums
Review
Bakeneko is the latest offering from Psych/Post-Rock Instrumentalists Stone From The Sky and it’s a deeper, heavier and quite alternative sound compared to their previous records. Leaning further into the Post-Metal stratosphere, the band can give PELICAN and RUSSIAN CIRCLES a run for their money with their blend of Cinematic Post-Rock that soon transforms into a heavier and progressive style of music. Stone From The Sky keeps things grounded with their sense of Stoner Rock optimism which is kept firmly on the melodic side.
According to Wikipedia - Bakeneko is a type of Japanese yōkai, or supernatural entity; more specifically, it is a kaibyō, or supernatural cat. The excellent album cover showcases this fact with vivid psychedelic imagery which matches the music Stone From The Sky conjures up on this release. There’s haunting ambient melodies and progressive sounds merging for a curious and investigative style of music that appears throughout the record which is set up superbly well on the opening tracks of The Weight Of A Thousand Thoughts and Hic Sunt Dracones.
Both tracks combine a wealth of different Post-Rock and Post-Metal soundscapes with a heavy amount of sludgy guitars adds a screeching level of violence in places which maybe quite surprising to hear from Stone From The Sky’s established fan base. The intricate spaced out themes and minimal sounds is quite distracting at first but allows Bakeneko to have a world-building quality contained within the overall creative themes the band have written for this record.
Other tracks on the album such as Hungerstein, Rond De Sorcière and Foehn explore a more mystical and mythical style of music which elevates the whole record into Post-Doom and Post-Stoner territory. The music is constantly evolving with epic strokes of Cinematic Rock being added which could easily see Bakeneko be easily compared to the recent Oscar winning (and soon to be classic) animated movie “FLOW”. Both projects are set in different mediums, however both subjects of each project are influenced by “CATS”. Maybe, I’m going off track here but both projects offer a wonderful sense of fantastical story that’s firmly grounded in the real world.
Stone From The Sky can be wholly destructive with their Post-Rock environment when they fully switch over to the dark side of “Post-Metal”. There are high amounts of uplifting Post-Rock and Post-Stoner attitude building behind the scenes with waves of Ethereal sounds allowing this to be quite a thought-provoking album at times.
The final two tracks of Klania and Last Breath Before The End allow Stone From The Sky to cover ground and play epic instrumental passages we’ve heard on their previous records but with the Progressive and Post-Metal attitude they’ve forged on Bakeneko. Nothing is as it seems with Stone From The Sky for Bakeneko as they take multiple daring risks with their music that pays off handsomely which allows Bakeneko to be their most mature, standout and breathtaking record to date.
Yeah, I adore this record and with exquisite production values throughout, Bakeneko is an unmissable record.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to Vous Connaissez ? PR for the promo.
Bakeneko is available to buy now on CD/DD/Vinyl via Argonauta Records
Links
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