Glacier - A Distant, Violent Shudder (Album Review)

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

Official | Facebook | BandCamp | Instagram

Post-Metal Collective GLACIER Announce New Album A DISTANT, VIOLENT SHUDDER With New Song/Video Released From Upcoming New Album

A five-piece post-metal band from Boston, MA, Glacier is a band whose music fully embodies their name: a crushingly loud and unrelenting force.

Following up 2019's bleak and monolithic No Light Ever, 2024 sees the release of A Distant, Violent Shudder, jointly released by Wolves & Vibrancy Records and Post. Recordings on September 6, 2024. Equal parts sprawling and claustrophobic, A Distant, Violent Shudder, set against the backdrop of the Dust Bowl, showcases Glacier's uncanny ability to highlight a harsh beauty amongst the urgency and despair found within the shared experience of wide-scale traumatic events. This is Glacier at their most refined.

A Distant, Violent Shudder arrives five years after No Light Ever, and while the band’s signature hues and tones can be found all over it, it is clear right from the first notes on the opening track that not only have they undergone an evolution, they’ve risen to a whole new level with their output. With unbealievable heaviness capable of moving mountains and floaty ambiances bringing the listener to the edge of their seat and to the point of breaking down entirely, Glacier have harnesses the might and resemblance of their namesake – persistent body of density that is equally beautiful as it is foreboding, only pulled down by its own weight and best viewed from a safe distance.

The quintet’s previous album No Light Ever – also as bleak, brooding, and introspective as the name implies – was nominated for 'Best Metal Artist' at the 2019 Boston Music Awards, and threw Glacier into the spotlight of the burgeoning international post-metal/rock scene, including landing on numerous best of year-end lists. Since their inception, Glacier has played heavily throughout the Northeastern and Central US supporting bands such as Boris, Big Brave, Bell Witch, Junius, Nothing, Pelican, Conan, Inter Arma, and a multitude of other notable acts in their respective musical field, cementing Glacier’s position on it to become a force to be reckoned with.

The record is being released by Wolves & Vibrancy in Europe and Post. Recordings in North America. Preorders are live here for Europe and here for North America

Links

Facebook | BandCamp | Instagram

Thanks to GLACIER for all of the details.