• Best of 2020
  • Monthly Missive
  • Columns
    • A Gift to Artwork
    • Cool People Column
    • Death’s Door
    • Doomsday
    • Editors’ Picks
    • Genre Genesis
    • Grind My Gears
    • Into the Pit
    • Kvlt Kolvmn
    • Post Rock Post
    • Rotten to the Core
    • Unmetal Monthly
  • Genres
    • Metal
      • Black Metal
      • Death Metal
      • Doom Metal
      • Grindcore
      • Metalcore
      • Post-Metal
      • Progressive Metal
      • Stoner Metal
      • Sludge Metal
      • Thrash Metal
      • Trad Metal
    • Rock
      • Art Rock
      • Hardcore
      • Indie Rock
      • Math Rock
      • Post-Rock
      • Progressive Rock
      • Psych Rock
      • Punk
      • Shoegaze
      • Stoner Rock
      • Synthwave
    • Classical
    • Electronic
    • Folk
    • Hip-Hop
    • Jazz
    • Pop
    • R&B
  • Reviews
  • Listen To This!
  • Podcast
  • Store
  • Contact
Search
Heavy Blog Is Heavy logo
  • Best of 2020
    Random
    • Heavy Blog Staff’s Top 25 Albums of 2020

      Heavy Blog
      January 25, 2021
      Best of 2020
    Recent
    • Music Journalism’s Top 50 Metal Albums of 2020

      Nick Cusworth
      February 9, 2021
    • Yearly Missive // 2020

      Eden Kupermintz
      January 25, 2021
    • Heavy Blog’s Favorite Albums of 2020

      Heavy Blog
      January 25, 2021
    • Unmetal Monthly // 2020 In Review

      Jonathan Adams
      January 25, 2021
    • Into the Pit // The Best (And Worst) Years for Thrash Metal

      Joshua Bulleid
      January 25, 2021
    • Kvlt Kolvmn // 2020 In Review

      Jonathan Adams
      January 25, 2021
  • Monthly Missive
    Random
    • Monthly Missive // November 2020

      Heavy Blog
      November 9, 2020
      Monthly Missive
    Recent
    • Monthly Missive // March 2021

      Eden Kupermintz
      March 1, 2021
    • Yearly Missive // 2020

      Eden Kupermintz
      January 25, 2021
    • Monthly Missive // January 2021

      Eden Kupermintz
      January 4, 2021
    • Monthly Missive // December 2020

      Heavy Blog
      December 7, 2020
    • Monthly Missive // October 2020

      Heavy Blog
      October 5, 2020
    • Monthly Missive // September 2020

      Heavy Blog
      September 2, 2020
  • Columns

    Recent

    • Jazz Club // March 2021

      Scott Murphy
      March 1, 2021
      The Jazz Club
    • Unmetal Monthly // March 2021

      Jonathan Adams
      March 1, 2021
      Columns, Unmetal Monthly
    • Rotten to the Core // March 2021

      Calder Dougherty
      March 1, 2021
      Columns, Rotten to the Core
    • Kvlt Kolvmn // March 2021

      Jonathan Adams
      March 1, 2021
      Kvlt Kolvmn
    • Death’s Door // March 2021

      Scott Murphy
      March 1, 2021
      Death's Door
    • article placeholder

      Doomsday // March 2021

      Pete Williams
      March 1, 2021
      Doomsday, News
    • A Gift to Artwork
    • Cool People Column
    • Death’s Door
    • Doomsday
    • Editors’ Picks
    • Genre Genesis
    • Grind My Gears
    • Into the Pit
    • Kvlt Kolvmn
    • Post Rock Post
    • Rotten to the Core
    • Unmetal Monthly
  • Genres
    • Metal
      • Black Metal
      • Death Metal
      • Doom Metal
      • Grindcore
      • Metalcore
      • Post-Metal
      • Progressive Metal
      • Stoner Metal
      • Sludge Metal
      • Thrash Metal
      • Trad Metal
    • Rock
      • Art Rock
      • Hardcore
      • Indie Rock
      • Math Rock
      • Post-Rock
      • Progressive Rock
      • Psych Rock
      • Punk
      • Shoegaze
      • Stoner Rock
      • Synthwave
    • Classical
    • Electronic
    • Folk
    • Hip-Hop
    • Jazz
    • Pop
    • R&B
  • Reviews
    Featured
    • Atramentus - Stygian

      Simon Handmaker
      September 2, 2020
      Reviews
    Recent
    • Dreamwell – Modern Grotesque

      Calder Dougherty
      March 1, 2021
    • Lizzard – Eroded

      Pete Williams
      March 1, 2021
    • Architects – For Those Who Wish to Exist

      Joshua Bulleid
      March 1, 2021
    • Orden Ogan – Final Days

      Joshua Bulleid
      March 1, 2021
    • Humanity’s Last Breath – Välde

      Calder Dougherty
      February 12, 2021
    • Nervosa – Perpetual Chaos

      Pete Williams
      February 12, 2021
  • Listen To This!
    Featured
    • Hey! Listen to Let Us Prey!

      Joshua Bulleid
      July 28, 2020
      Listen To This!
    Recent
    • What We’re Really Listening To – 2/26/21

      Scott Murphy
      February 26, 2021
    • Release Day Roundup – 2/26/21

      Scott Murphy
      February 26, 2021
    • Release Day Roundup – 2/19/21

      Scott Murphy
      February 19, 2021
    • Hey! Listen to Froglord!

      Pete Williams
      February 12, 2021
    • What We’re Really Listening To – 2/12/21

      Scott Murphy
      February 12, 2021
    • Release Day Roundup – 2/12/21

      Scott Murphy
      February 12, 2021
  • Podcast
  • Store
  • Contact
Home
Reviews

Glassing – Spotted Horse

Trent Bos
May 7, 2019
Reviews

I’ve found a tendency of late to gravitate towards music that doesn’t easily fit into one genre, or sub-genre even. These niche sub-genres like blackgaze that I originally have fawned over, I’ve found to have quickly grown easily saturated. I also have a seemingly insatiable appetite always for something ‘new’. Looking back at a few of my favourite releases of the last few years – such as Rolo Tomassi and Astronoid, they both undeniably brought something unique to a table that has seen way too many of the same meals. The blackgaze/post-black metal subgenre has seen a resurgence in my eyes this year due to several bands willingness to innovate and stretch its boundaries, and Glassing’s upcoming sophomore release Spotted Horse is no exception.

Spotted Horse wastes no time with intro tracks to ease you into their harrowing, blast-beat laden organized chaos and delivers a gut punch right from the first track. “When You Stare” effectively displays all of which the Austin trio have crafted for the listener for the next fourty-plus minutes, with crunchingly heavy staccato chugs (shoutout to Andrew Hernandez for the superbly fitting production), noisy wall of sounds and ethereal, moody ambiance. The vocals while a bit one-dimensional, stylistically remind me a lot of Oathbreaker, and have this very An Autumn for Crippled Children level of emotional desperation and rawness to them that add to the pained longing ever present on this album.

Where recent releases from bands in this sub-genre such as Illyria and Numenoreon invoke more modern metalcore and progressive metal influences into their black metal pallet, Glassing draw from their predecessors of the likes of Converge, and Botch, in a manner that the likes of the aforementioned Oathbreaker have been able to pull off very successfully. I would argue semantically that this more a post-metal or blackened hardcore album than black metal. While the influence and genre traits are present at times, they’re much less of the defining identity here, but that ability to seamlessly blend all these influences is one of the reasons this album is so strong.I think a lot of bands in this sphere especially tend to struggle to incorporate what makes post-rock and post-metal worthwhile genres in the first place, and just ham-fist in atmospheric eeriness and clean sections for the sake of contrast. “A Good Death” strikes me as a means of doing this properly. The ambient post-rocky crescendo has a well-structured payoff that makes the build-up worth it and feels natural to the progression of the song.

The positioning of the tracks here is very effective at keeping a strong and logical flow, as a follow-up to one of the more down-tempo and atmospheric songs of the album, “Bronze” adds some needy energy to the album with some fast paced The Fall of Troy inspired riffing and a lot of old-school post-hardcore influence. “Follow Through” then explodes with heaviness, keeping the throwbacks coming by bouncing back between odes to Converge and blast beats, and more MySpace eraNorma Jean-esque “panic chord” breakdowns and pinch harmonics. 

Spotted Horse concludes with one of the most beautiful tracks on the album, the aptly named “The Wound is Where the Light Enters”, a 6.5 minute relaxing epilogue of soft drums and clean chord progressions with an underlying current of tension, which allows you to reflect introspectively on everything you’ve just experience with the feeling of accepting loss. This is summed up in the two first lines in the song, “You carry on without me, You carry on with easy words.” A cathartic end to an emotional journey through dense textures and the illusion of hope.

Fans of the heavier side of post-rock, the atmospheric side of post-hardcore, and the emotional side of black metal should find plenty to get lost in here. Glassing’s Spotted Horse will be released on May 17th via Brutal Panda Records on LP and digital formats. For preorders, head here.

Check out the new music video for “Sleeper” below.

…

Spotted Horse drops May 17th via Brutal Panda Records, and is available for pre-order on the band’s Bandcamp page.

Comments

Blackgazechaotic hardcoreGlassingpost metalPost-black metalPost-Hardcorepost-rockspotted horse

About The Author

Trent Bos

Related Posts

  • Dreamwell – Modern Grotesque

    Calder Dougherty
    March 1, 2021
  • Orden Ogan – Final Days

    Joshua Bulleid
    March 1, 2021

Patreon

Ko-fi

Podcast

All the Heavy Lifting

Latest Reviews

  • Dreamwell – Modern Grotesque

    Calder Dougherty
    March 1, 2021
    The world of post-hardcore and screamo tend to follow a similar parallel to black metal, being either forgettably silly... Read More...
  • Lizzard – Eroded

    Pete Williams
    March 1, 2021
    As I sat down to write up a review for Eroded, the latest from the trio Lizzard out of France, I came upon my favorite ... Read More...
  • Architects – For Those Who Wish to Exist

    Joshua Bulleid
    March 1, 2021
    Architects are well overdue a shake-up at this point. Holy Hell is a much stronger record than I first gave it credit f... Read More...
  • Orden Ogan – Final Days

    Joshua Bulleid
    March 1, 2021
    From the moment Blind Guardian's stock started to fall following 2006's underrated-if-uneven A Twist in the Myth record... Read More...