When exactly do we make two “Hey! Listen to This!” posts? It’s usually when an artist or band have grown a lot since the last time we’ve spoken about them. We want you to give them a fresh listen, because things are either very different than last time or represent a more mature and fully realized version of the band’s vision. In this case, we’re firmly in the latter’s territory: Ebonivory still make the kind of chromatic, bright progressive metalcore that caused us to tell you to listen to them last time. But, with the recent release of their full length The Long Dream I, Ebonivory have proven that they more than justify another post of this kind, as they’ve pushed their core sound way harder, higher, and deeper with this new release.
Listening to the sixth track, “A Colour I’m Blind To”, we can see that the main touch-points of the music are still the same. Both the final minute on the track and the opening moments should make you think of TesseracT and bands of that type. But things are much tighter here than they’ve been in the past. The synths work brilliantly as a backing instrument, drawing our attention to the back of the mix, where the bass fills the air with a prominent yet subtle tone. From there, we come full circle back to the guitars. While the main riff is definitely djent, it is a lot more than just that; the backing guitar tracks do wonders in playing more post-rock tinged lines, setting things with the kind of twilight light that the album’s cover also eludes to.
The vocals also sound more accurate and persistently moving. It might be something to do with the track’s structure rather than the performance itself, which is just as great as previous releases. On the vocal front, things just feel like they flow better into each other, from the screamed cleans, through the growls, and all the way back to the softer parts. The result is a track, and an album, that just fits better together. All these ideas and skills were present in previous releases but on The Long Dream I they are presented with a degree of polish that’s a joy to listen to (especially as that excellent outro kicks in, don’t miss it).
So, for all of those reasons and more, we urge you to once again listen to Ebonivory. If you like what you hear, you can and absolutely should order the album. Excelsior!