Portland Oregon’s Nanda Devi (named after the second largest mountain in India) aren’t doing anything particularly original or inspiring with their take on the suddenly popular to hate post rock, Neur-Isis styled metal, but it’s a worthy entry into the genre.
Five relatively rangy songs (6-10 minutes) and three untitled instrumental fillers make up the album’s impressive but by the numbers mix of acoustic builds, throbbing ebbs and mountainous, calamitous peaks all littered with a various array of screams, roars and shouts from bassist Ryan and guitarist Aaron Schomaker. The production is earthy and loose but with plenty of heft and resonance. The delicate moments within the songs (i.e. “Fifth Season”) and untitled tracks are thoughtful and appropriately shoe gazer-ish, but I can’t say I was kept rapt or mesmerized. None of it really breaks the whole Isis, Neurosis, Cult of Luna, Rosetta mold, and I really could not pin pinpoint a standout moment or track, but it’s done well enough to at least be mentioned in the same sentence as their ilk.
A few haunting, well placed spoken words introduce a couple of the songs (“Abandoned by the Sun”, “Blood and Iron”), breaking up the tried and tested formula of crumbling, slow riffage a few urgent rumbles and more atmospheric injections and on the whole the tracks get to the point, making the album a post rock album for fans like me who have ADD. Still though, there’s nothing on The Fifth Season that defines it from the pack or makes it standout, other than being a standard, enjoyable entry into the genre.
I’d say they in fact DID change the genre, no one has ever done black metal vocals in “post” anything before. Also, the drummer absolutely stands out unlike most similar bands.
on Mar 23rd, 2009 at 13:40Rwake?
on Mar 23rd, 2009 at 13:44Highgate?
I agree with Dirty Dave, the black metal vocals make this album stand out completely, as with the new drummer, that dude glues everything together very well, I dig!!!
on Mar 30th, 2009 at 18:03