Rare Field Ceiling

I liked their previous effort, Immersion Trench Reverie well enough to be excited for this release. I'm not familiar with any of their previous releases but it looks like they have been quite prolific. Five full-lengths in seven years is an impressive schedule. I have no comment on fatigue or a decrease in quality being I've only listened to the two most recent but they are both about on the same level except for one, massive glaring obstacle.

The production. I'm actually amazed with how bad it is. At first I was listening to this album in my car on the physical CD version and messed with my audio settings to no avail (my 2017 Subaru Crosstrek has a decent stock sound system). I decided to then stream it from my desk my pretty nice over-ear headphones to see if that makes much of a difference. Still the same. The vocals are so drowned out at some points you can't distinguish them. Once the singing ends at 0:10 on the title track, "Rare Field Ceiling", you can hear ever-so-slight vocals but are nearly inaudible. Not only that but the sound quality sounds terrible. The higher sections sound like it was recorded analog. If that was the case, then cool, but this sounds terrible from a digital recording. It would be an odd choice for a band with a sound like this to try to go analog.

The writing is about on par with Immersion Trench Reverie. It's a unique sound that is sometimes a little experimental in the execution. "Rare Field Ceiling" at 6:06 has an extremely unique composition where the guitars ring high and just bide their time while the drums are blasting away. Overall it's very ambient with a great job at setting the somber mood, though less than their previous release. It's also interesting that most all of the songs have a wildly different outro that has a different theme. The first song has wind chimes and some form of what sounds like an Asian stringed instrument, next we get that instrument with a foreign language chant/sing, then a bigger version of the wind chimes and string instrument with synth now, then Himalayan throat singing. "Maritime Flair" brings it all back with a little of all of it for an album outro.

I like the vocals quite a bit more than on their previous effort (I'm not sure how they've changed prior to that release). Before the vocals leaned a little hard core. Very high, but reminded me of that genre. That is all gone here, now if only I could hear them clearly. The aforementioned poor production only adds more sameness to the already monotonous vocal style. The drums are fairly standard and nothing really was catching my ear in that department.

The song names are uncomfortable. Maybe it's just me but they are an enigma in themselves. "Nutrient Painting"? Painting with nutrients? A painting of nutrients? "Rare Field Ceiling"? Does the field have a ceiling? Yes, I'd agree it's rare, because I've never seen a field ceiling. They let the mind's eye wander making sense of the picture and meaning. Speaking of song names, what is up with using the term "Maritime" in metal? Does it have some other awesome meaning other than relating to the sea? The Ruins of Beverast have a song called "Surtur Barbaar Maritime" and Augury has "Maritime". Like I've seen it too many times throughout the last year. Odd.

There's a lot of dissonant sections and melodic parts, sometimes at the same time from the guitar work. This creates a cacophony of sound that can be an uneasy listen but I like it for the most part because there's still rhyme to the reason. The leads are actually interesting for a genre like this. Most of the leads on "No Dust" are all quite interesting. The riff at 0:45 on the title track is another ear worm. It even has some hard-plucked acoustic guitar sections that are uniquely employed. Normally in extreme metal there are designated sparse sections where the acoustic comes out to play. Here it is incorporated with the whole. Not in-your-face (like that could happen here!). Listen to 1:32 on "Light Delusion Curtain" for a treat on bass while the guitar is resting. Also, check the absolute hammering at the start of "Nutrient Painting". The bass makes the first half of the song. There are a few other tricks in this bassists playbook that can be found.

Favorite tracks:
-No Dust
-Rare Field Ceiling
-Light Delusion Curtain

Technical Skill: 73% Song writing: 81% Production: 18% Originality: 67%