City Of Ships

Minor World

Written by: PP on 14/08/2011 04:55:56

Progressive post-hardcore/post-metal unit City Of Ships have been trying to break away from their association with post-"Vheissu" Thrice ever since their inception, something which they still haven't been able to do on their newest album "Minor World". While such petty ideas will busy other reviewers for days or even weeks, us here at Rockfreaks.net are simply happy that there's a band willing to explore the experimental post-metal field left behind by "Vheissu" in such an original and engaging extent as City Of Ships have done throughout their recorded career. Their previous album "Look What God Did To Us" was, albeit its ambient mood, an aggressive post-metal album that pushed down the pedals and smashed through the windows despite its ability to conjure dense and contemplative soundscapes from start to finish.

"Minor World", then, is a lot like "Look What God...", except the soundscapes feel more confined and the band have focused their crushing atmospheres into smaller spaces than before. "Clotilde" and "Tantric Engineer", for instance, enjoy a thoroughly claustrophobic and thoughtful atmosphere, enabling the soaring choruses to overwhelm the listener in just the right way after the post-metal climaxes of artistic beauty. This is one of the absolute strengths of the album, because where previous efforts were sometimes criticised for their extensive progression and seemingly never-ending constructive passages, "Minor World" is a much more focused effort, leaving most songs at around 4 minutes to allow even the casual listener to be captivated by the sheer intellect placed behind the songs. Nonetheless, most of our readers will pass by "Minor World" thinking something along the lines of "oh, that sounds just like Thrice", without appreciating the structure or the minute detail that has been placed to each chord, each note to make it fit into the overall song. Sure, "Minor World" is still not comparable to a Thrice record, but it's a progressive post-metal beauty by a band that's underrated and, in many ways, forgotten by the scene. Not many bands make music as beautiful as this, is how I'd like to finish the review, but I'll have to make a note of how the last few tracks of the CD are a lot weaker than the first bit, which makes "Minor World" feel a little more inconsistent in comparison to "Look What God...".

7

Download: Clotilde, Tantric Engineer
For the fans of: Thrice, A Storm Of Light, Constants
Listen: Myspace

Release date 19.07.2011
Translation Loss Records / Sound Study Recordings

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