All Will Gather To The Shores - Deity Of Ruin

And now for the new release.

All Will Gather To The Shores have crafted something far more abrasive and far more interesting with Deity Of Ruin. Sounds and effects blare and fade, intermixed with distinct and heavily distorted harsh vocals on this release much like they did on the previous. Everything feels more refined, and from beginning to end, Deity Of Ruin feels like a grand escapade towards an abstract land or cosmic goal. Ironically the track titled "Journey" happens to be one of the best on here.

The rattling, jarring opener "Captivity" sets things in motion as Deity Of Ruin begins sculpting its sonic landscape from whale bones and the ashes of modernity. "Machine" is interesting in that it features subtle drumwork and even a few fills along with All Will Gather To The Shores' fuzzy, low guitars. The blaring high register notes are the sounds I would imagine the earth would make as humanity scars its landscape with mines and refineries. Some tracks, like these two, are less subtle than those on Their Bodies Clutter The Sea. The distant roaring of "Journey," and the electric guitar-driven "Ashore" are both similar to the openers in this regard.

As the more subtle, dark ambient track "Mist" gives way to the comparatively lighthearted "Relief," the sonic landscape appears to be reaching completion. The general picture of Deity Of Ruin has already been established by the end of "Relief," whose guitar keeps building in decibels as it goes. "Journey" follows up and sets the action in motion aboard the decrepit world stage. Soft, clean guitarwork dotted with a very light post rock sound guides the listener over crevasses, empty valleys, vast oceans, and tortured cities. The vocals on this track are fantastic, subdued and distant in the mix, and a subtle reminder of all that is wrong with the planet Deity Of Ruin has built. They trail off, fade in, and eventually the distorted, gated guitar brings the world to its knees in a calamitous finale.

"Island" is far more quiet and introspective, guided almost entirely by acoustic guitars. It makes for a nice follow up to "Journey" before the catchy drone riffing of "Ashore." The vocals on "Ashore" are raspy and almost black metallish, contrasting from the primal, world-roar of "Journey." Granted they're all heavily distorted so it makes little difference, but just something I noticed. "Beyond" closes the album out with distant sounds of gulls and waves, returning the world to the water in which it was born.

There are numerous instances on Deity Of Ruin which grant it the added tag of doom along with ambient, drone, and psychedelic noise. The riffing is distorted, fuzzy, heavy, and some of it is constant enough to put it in the drone doom realm. The use of strings is honestly what makes this such an interesting release for me, and the atmosphere that All Will Gather To The Shores create on Deity Of Ruin is stark on multiple levels.

Deity Of Ruin makes me think again about Herakleitos, impermanence, and post modernity. Any album that makes me contemplate...things is good in my books.

8.5 out of 10

Tracklisting:
1. Captivity
2. Machine
3. Mist
4. Relief
5. Journey
6. lsland
7. Ashore
8. Beyond

Bandcamp

All Will Gather To The Shores - Their Bodies Clutter The Sea

I'm going to cover both of Russian act All Will Gather To The Shores' releases. This is their first release, Their Bodies Clutter The Sea.

Drone and ambient work well with psychedelic. The visual aspect of psychedelic has always been the main draw, and as I'm finding out now, the main draw for drone, ambient, and noise. Unlike most purely electronic or synthetic ambient or drone, All Will Gather To The Shores utilize subtle and limited strings and extremely distorted, low-mixed vocals. The latter pop up infrequently, and on this release only on "Gale" and "Calm." "Gale" is appropriately the least soothing with its noisy, distorted looping and dissonant chord transitions. As a concept it serves quite nicely, although it isn't the most compelling track.

Follow up tracks "Hope" and "Despair" are two sides of the same coin with "Hope" being guided by relatively peaceful string sounds. It's nice coming from "Gale" but since the track is barely over a minute "Despair" slowly kicks in, which is surprisingly less melancholy than the name. It's a lackadaisical track, like basking on the sun-baked deck of a ship left adrift after a monstrous storm. "Calm," the longest and most acutely developed track on the album is much more solemn in its development. The soft strings kick in before the vocals do - as harsh and distorted as ever - until they fade to light guitars and a droning outro.

The guitar tone is of note on Their Bodies Clutter The Sea. It's doomy, heavy, and distorted, and the higher register notes sound like the audio interpretation of sun rays beating down onto sunburnt backs. In a way, Their Bodies Clutter The Sea almost evokes a desert image in that regard.

A solid, but slightly underdeveloped taster of the sound that would await on Deity Of Ruin.

6.5 out of 10

Tracklisting:
1. Gale
2. Hope
3. Despair
4. Calm

Bandcamp

Mirrorring - Foreign Body

Before you decry my will to check out singer-songwriter music from the west coast as being "hipster," I suggest you actually listen to some of it. This kind of music can be pretty intricate, emotive, and is very leisurely to listen to.

Mirrorring are labeled by some as a dreampop band and I don't see that at all. Made up of Jesy Fortino of Tiny Vipers and Liz Harris of Grouper, this album blends folk sounds with psychedelic new/no/ethereal/whatever-the-fuck-wave music. The result is a surprisingly heavy record titled Foreign Body, and the whole thing feels quite dreamlike. Perhaps that's where the misnomer dreampop came from.

There's just a single, traditionally structured track on Foreign Body. It's relatively deep-voiced Fortino's gorgeous "Silent From Above," which reeks of mournful nostalgia. Other tracks all follow differing structures, some taking influence from the artist's previous work, and some from other subgenres. "Cliffs" for example borrows heavily from post rock. It builds from a simple, repetitive acoustic intro into a densely layered middle with an electro-ambient conclusion. The result is impressive and evokes a sweeping panorama of the Great Basin and its harsh climate. "Mine" is probably the strongest track on the album, with rising electronic harmonies and some great vocal interplay between the duo halfway through. Harris' electronics envelop the track, subtly building tension that is never quite resolved. It's quite disconcerting.

In fact the entire album pretty much feels like falling asleep and then having a bout of sleep paralysis. Closer "Mirror Of Our Sleeping" really touches upon the feeling of waking up weary and anxious, and then going back to sleep in the middle of the night. Something about it sounds so troubled, yet complacent in how lost it is.

The production throughout Foreign Body is filled with haze and a heavy dose of reverb. Each pluck of a string by Fortino feels like it's amplified and echoed through a tunnel of ions created by Harris. Yes, that was a Wormed reference that I somehow managed to work into this review, and no I won't do that again. Anyway while it fits the theme of the album, I don't think ambient droner "Drowning The Call" works so well in context. Luckily the more straightforward and somber "Silent From Above" had come earlier or else I probably would've felt the same way about it. There are a few plucked guitar melodies that add some texture to what feels like a smooth electronic track that goes nowhere with its sound. One of the few times the dynamic doesn't quite work out in the duo's favor.

For the most part though, Foreign Body is a powerful piece of work. Soothing electronics and vocals, building song dynamics, and a (blatant) dreamlike atmosphere make it a more complex and multi-dimensional release when compared to some of Fortino and Harris' previous efforts (at least from what I've heard - which is quite limited).

7.75 out of 10

Tracklisting:
1. Fell Sound
2. Silent From Above
3. Cliffs
4. Drowning The Call
5. Mine
6. Mirror Of Our Sleeping

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