Introduction
Sorry for this momentary hiatus but I’ve been busy a lot in these months with guitar lessons and Echoes From A Great Distance, we have a new line-up, a new site http://efagd.wordpress.com ( please check it ! ), and we are also working for new tunes and new shows.
Year 2019 is coming to its end and just between September and October I saw three great returns in the post-metal area.
Tool – Fear Inoculum
The first great return is the return of Tool, after thirteen years.
Last August, in my Maynard James Keenan post, I wrote about the long discographic pause that Tool had after “10000 Days”. And finally they came back
Fear Inoculum is the perfect return for Tool after all this time, the proof is already in the opening title-track: a distorted bell as opening, then comes Adam Jones with his guitar swells, Danny with his drumming and, obviously Maynard and his voice.
The 10-minutes of the track remind me the sounds of Lateralus ( my favourite Tool’s album ), particularly “Reflection”, the track 11 of that album.
If the title track reminds me of “Reflection”, the following track, “Pneuma”, reminds me “The Patient” and “The Grudge” in one track. Extraordinary is also the intermission of drums, bass and synth at the 7th minute culminating with a guitar riff.
Then, after a strange intermission (“Litanie contre la peur”) comes “Invincible”, one of the first tracks played by Tool in their shows before the album’s outcome. And I have no words to say, so I quote this part from “Wall of Sound” that perfectly describes the atmosphere of this track.
‘Invincible’ is perfectly primed for the live stage with its energetic vocal lines and epic chorus turning it into a battle cry for the world before it disintegrates at the seven-minute mark with the band getting their band jam freak on with an instrumental section that utterly transfixes you with the way the guitar, drums, and bass coalesce together, only for the drums to fade out and leave you with only the slow, invigorating dirge of the guitar and bass before Keenan returns and the band blast the song into oblivion
Then, after another atmospheric intermission ( “Legion Inoculant”), comes “Descending”, the other song played in their shows: guitarist Adam Jones is the protagonist in all the 13-minutes of the songs, especially in the last seven, completely instrumental.
“Chocolate Chip Trip” is a 5-intermission of synth-noises, but here this time the protagonist is drummer Danny Carey, making the best efforts after the second minute with a series of drum fills.
“7empest” is their longest track (15:44) and surely their most aggressive track ( I would say that it’s the best track of the album, with “Descending” ), after two minutes of guitar arpeggios comes extraordinary heavy riffs reminding of songs like “Thicks and Leeches” or “Rosetta Stoned”: Maynard’s voice turns aggressive and instruments match this performance with fiery rage as they pull out all the stops with Jones and Carey and Justin Chancellor exposing every inch of themselves through their musical mastery.
I’d like to quote the final from “Wall of Sound” to describe this album
Fear Inoculum is a masterpiece that will be unpacked, studied and scrutinised over for years to come. Tool has not so much reinvented the wheel, as they have refined everything about this band that makes them so special in the first place.
Cult Of Luna – A Dawn To Fear
With Isis and Neurosis, Swedish band Cult Of Luna have been one of the main protagonist of the so-called “atmospheric sludge” ( or post-metal), and just last September they released their new album “A Dawn To Fear”, six years after their latest album “Vertikal” – well excluding “Mariner”, the collaboration with ex-Battle Of Mice singer, Julie Christmas.
Six years during which Cult Of Luna had another change a line-up with the departure of three of their historical members: singer Klas Rydberg, guitarist Erik Olofsson and keyboardist Anders Teglund.
With this new album they finally put aside the industrial and electronic sound which characterised their latest release, and return almost to the atmospheres of their best releases, “Salvation” and “Somewhere Along The Highway”.
“Silent Man” is the perfect opening track of the album: guitar feedbacks, growling basses, devastating percussive rhythms and organ blasts also come and go when Johannes Persson’s hoarse hardcore vocals aren’t shredding the mic.
After this esplosive moment with their first two tracks, then comes the title tracks, almost a tribute to northern folk bands like Tenhi or early October Falls: dark arpeggios, very low vocals and the harmonium sound, typical of the style.
The following track is “Nightwalkers”, 11-minutes long but surely one of the best tracks: from the beginning with dark guitar arpeggios and distorted bass riffs to the percussion and synth intermission at the 5th minute, till the last impressive two minutes.
“Lights on the Hill” is their longest track (15:08), a sort of heavier and darker version of “Waiting For You” ( the fourth track from their masterpiece, “Salvation”) but that sometimes remember also “Dark City, Dead Man” ( last track from “Somewhere Along The Highway” ) in the last 5 minutes
“The Fall” is, for me, their best track and their perfect closure for this album with the first minutes that remember “Carry” from Isis.
Remarkable is above all the apparent calm at the 7th minute that culminate the final heavy riff that traces the beginning of the song.
And I have to say that just last month I saw their concert at the Nosturi, and surely it was the best concert I saw this year.
Alcest – Spiritual Instinct 
But for me, the best discographic arrival of this year is Spiritual Instinct, Alcest’s new release.
An album where the French band, whose core is singer and guitarist Neige and drummer Winterhalten, continue their road to the “return to the extremity”, like in the previous album “Kodama”, after the soft indie-rock interlude with their beautiful “Shelter”.
Their first two tracks “Les Jardins De Minuit” and “Protection” are perfect examples of this direction: pressing drum beats culminating often is blast-beats ( typical of black metal music ), extraordinary reverbered guitar riffs and Neige’s voice alternating perfectly between screaming and melodic.
In “Sapphire” but especially in “L’Ile des Mort” appears for the first time the synth: “L’Ile des Mort” is the longest track ( 9:04 ) but is, for me, their standout track, there are reminds of “Ecailles de Lune” but also from “Oiseaux de proie” ( fifth track from “Kodama” ), from the initial explosive guitar riffs to the final three minutes of arpeggios.
And on February they will be in Helsinki, at the Tavastia
