Museum Of Light - Diviner (Album Review)

Release Date: March 21st 2025. Record Label: Spartan Records. Formats: DD/Vinyl

Diviner - Tracklisting

1.Body

2.Blunt Force Drama 

3.Get Paid

4.Above You

5.Undone 

6.The Known World

7.Still Running

8.Kneel

9.Born All Wrong 

10.Diviner

11.Breathe

Members

Ted Alvarez: Guitars, Vocals

Jeff Bartlett: Bass Guitar

Rob Smith: Drums, Vocals, Keys

Review

Alternative/Sludge/Stoner Rockers Museum Of Light return with their emotionally charged and brilliantly satisfying new album Diviner. The band impressed me back in 2022 with their acclaimed debut album Horizon with its mix of Alt Rock, Shoegaze, Psych, Stoner, Sludge, Doom, Post-Rock and Progressive based movements. Diviner follows a similar path but with a more nuanced and multi-layered sound.

The record sees new additions of Jeff Bartless on Bass Guitar, Elissa Aliverz on vocal duties and Amelia Urry providing Spoken Word poems which are highly majestic and give the album a sense of realism that deserves to be heard by the biggest audience possible. The sound is amplified by HUGE SOUNDING grooves and complex melodies which easily draw comparisons to the likes of HUM, Cave In, Torche and Floor but with a Shoegaze / Doomgaze leading the band into Progressive waters. 

The album even has moments of huge sounding Stadium Rock melodies but is mostly held down by a grounded Sludge/Stoner Rock instrumental charge. The vocals are held back more compared to Horizon with Museum Of Light excelling within their “LESS IS MORE” approach with stunning heavy sludgy guitars propelling the band into Spaced Out and Ethereal territories.

This is more of a collaborative effort with guest contributions from Elissa Aliverz on vocal duties and Amelia Urry’s spellbinding spoken word poems being some of the genuine highlights of the record.

With a distant Ambient, Space Rock and Psychedelic flow allowing for mellow Post-Rock themes to appear for the most uplifting parts of the record before Museum Of Light transform into highly destructive but equally melodic DOOM-POP destroyers with that FLOOR and TORCHE influence coming into play.

There’s a wonderful sense of complex melodies throughout the album with a harsh sense of reality creeping in at times but those excellent spoken word parts allows an upbeat environment to fully form on the later stages of the record. The sound can be considered experimental with flashes of glitches and intricate noises having a mind of their own though Museum Of Light’s dominant Alt Metal keeps everything moving along at a superb pace.

I could have easily written a song-by-song review for Diviner but I consider this as one long instrumental track broken down into individual chapters. There’s a cinematic and unpredictable nature to how Museum Of Light deliver their music especially when the music becomes disjointed with heavy DRONED OUT passages whilst still keeping with their intense creative vision.

If I have to recommend some favourite tracks of mine then I would say Blunt Force Drama, Above You, The Known World, Still Running, Diviner and Breathe. As these are the songs that best describe Museum Of Light across both of their brilliant and highly original albums.

Diviner does have a certain abstract, colourful and retro sound coming from the production side of things with Museum Of Light having a certain Seattle vibe to the record with help from Scott Evans, Carl Saff, Cameron Heck and the band’s very own Jeff Alaverz all contributing with the making of the album. They’ve all done a wonderful job which allows Museum Of Light once again to create a highly anthemic style of music which will no doubt allow Diviner to become one of my favourite albums of the year.

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to Spartan Records for the promo.

Diviner will be available to buy on DD/Vinyl via Spartan Records from March 14th 2025.

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Museum Of Light - Blunt Force Drama (Single Review)

Release Date: January  2025. Record Label: Spartan Records. Formats: DD

Blunt Force Drama - Track Listing:

Blunt Force Drama

Members

Ted Alvarez: Guitars, Vocals

Jeff Bartlett: Bass Guitar

Rob Smith: Drums, Vocals, Keys

Review

Blunt Force Drama is the epic new single from Alternative/Sludge/Shoegaze Rockers Museum Of Light who made a massive impression with me thanks to their acclaimed 2022 debut full length album Horizon. The album showed Museum Of Light’s great style of music that travelled across the Shoegaze, Alt Rock, Doom, Sludge, Indie, Psych and Stoner Rock platforms for something bold, aggressive, melodic and downright insightful.

The band have applied that style once again to Blunt Force Drama which is mostly a powerful instrumental track with haunting chants and echoes from Ted Alvarez and Rob Smith providing the ethereal vocals. The upcoming album Diviner sees new additions of Jeff Bartless on Bass Guitar, Elissa Aliverz on vocal duties and Amelia Urry providing Spoken Word poems which are highly majestic and give the album a sense of realism that’s brilliantly powerful at the same time.

However, Blunt Force Drama is powered by ethereal Sludge/Stoner grooves that reminds me of HUM, TORCHE and FLOOR but with Museum Of Light still creating their own highly original style of music that is very hard to define.

WOW. End of…

Words by Steve Howe

Diviner will be available to buy on DD/Vinyl via Spartan Records from March 14th 2025.

Links

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Museum Of Light - Horizon (Album Review)

Release Date: June 10th 2022. Record Label: Spartan Records. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl

Horizon - Tracklisting

Organelle

Waves

Cal

Soft Openings

Drug School

How Everybody Dies

Dethenger

Bad Electricity

Sirens

Members

Ted Alvarez

Rob Smith

Travis Duennes

Review

Horizon is the debut full length album from Post-Rock/Psych/Stoner Rockers Museum Of Light and they bring a highly original projection of Post-Doom/Post-Stoner sounds that expands the Post-Rock platform. Taking musical cues and influences from bands as diverse as Pelican, Russian Circles, FLOOR and Torche, this band is a breath of fresh air even with these guys bringing a gloomy cinematic feeling to the album.

Opening song Organelle is an instrumental affair with a solitary vocal track putting the listener into a peaceful trance which the album uses as it's main theme of storytelling. The grooves are a mixture of Drone based textures with Doom Metal and Stoner Metal based heavy grooves having a Torche like effect especially when the Psychedelic Sludgy Riffs appear.

Second song Waves has some cool sweet natured vocals appearing before the mood of the song turns gloomy with bleak atmospherics allowing Museum Of Light to add brief elements of uplifting Ambient Post-Rock when merged with the Stoner-ish Post-Whatever sounds. The later stages of the song sees Museum Of Light play progressively heavy drone based guitars with long drawn out sound effects that move swiftly into the next song.

Third song Cal carries on the "FLOOR/TORCHE'' dynamic with DOOM-POP based vocals and DOOM based lyrics for a song that captures the LIGHT & DARK elements down to a fine art. Prog Rock sounds move further into the Stoner/Post-Rock backdrop with heavy Drone Rock rhythms bringing a different level of heaviness. The earlier solitary vocal track makes an appearance and it's best to listen to what's being said. As this moves the story of the album to the next few songs. Though, Museum Of Light impresses the most with the great music contained on this track .The instrumental work is sublime with Museum Of Light feeling they have more members in their ranks and not the power-trio formation that makes up this great band.

Fourth song Soft Openings is one of the heaviest tracks on the album with a more direct sound that weaves between the areas of Post-Rock, Post-Doom and Sludge Rock. This song did remind me of SOM in places but still allowing Museum Of Light to forge their own creative path. Powerful instrumental work that is both unforgiving and uplifting at the same time. Thunderous guitars at the end suddenly stop leaving you wanting more from one of the best songs on the album.

Things do take a darker and unexpected turn on songs such as Drug School and How Everybody Dies with Museum Of Light becoming more cerebral with their music and creative themes on the album especially with How Everybody Dies mainly thanks to the soundclip used on that song. Left myself feeling uncomfortable and made my job even harder when listening to the fantastic grooves written for that particular song. 

The final three songs Dethenger, Bad Electricity and Sirens allows Museum Of Light the opportunity to drift further into the darker side of Post-Rock/Post-Stoner worlds they've created for this album. Haunting vocal melodies and soaring Psychedelic grooves come full circle towards the end of the album with a soundclip bringing you out of your trance.

Horizon is a wonderfully creative and highly original album that also manages to be quite unsettling in certain places. However, Museum Of Light have written fantastic sounds to accompany their intense dark vision but still never forgetting to include many moments 0f uplifting Psych Rock grooves that may have a twinge of YOB to them.

This is a potential Album Of The Year right here and the more folks from the Doom/Stoner Metal underground know about Museum Of Light, the better. 

You need to add this album to your record collection NOW. 

Amazing. End Of.

Words by Steve Howe

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