For me to like a post rock album must mean their either doing something really wrong or really right. In the case of UK outfit The Depth Beath Us, and their freshly released second album Descent, I'd wager it's the former. This is especially true, seeing as the album has been able to cut through my recent grindcore binge and fixation on throwback metalcore, along with all the great death metal albums released last week, to become something of a fixture of my recent listening habits. Perhaps there's some truth to the band's claim that they've harness the same style of "symphonic guitar layers, vaguely reminiscent of how U2’s Joshua Tree created wide open, soaring sonic spaces" even if they didn't adopt its bass tone as well? Maybe it's just because (unlike some other lauded post-metal acts), they didn't wait six full songs and eleven-minutes into the final track for things to finally get interesting.
Along with the symphonic layers concocted on one of history's greatest rock n' roll records, The Depth Beneath us liken their sound to "Battles' dissection of electronic music, Russian Circles' dramatic metallic guitars", but my uncultured ears hear a lot more similarities to Cloudkicker's mid-period output in its atmospheric concoctions and the three-pronged attack of guitarists Mike McCormick, Daniel Eckrich and the appropriately named Matt Rockman. The album also sounds compellingly crisp while still remaining immense, having been recorded by MDW Productions, mixed by Steve Durose (Oceansize, Vennart) and mastered at the legendary Abbey Road Studios. I'll stop short of saying it's aggressive, but Descent is a lot more "active" than I (and I'll wager you) usually expect from this sort of music. Second track "Cluster", in particular, starts with a punchy, somewhat-harsh riff that sounds like a post-hardcore or grunge song or something I can't quite place. Elsewhere, things never get quite as energised, but there's an urgency to the compositions that keeps things engaging while never loosing the sense of elating calm that post rock aims to evoke.
Also helpful is that Descent is made up of shorter tracks, mostly hovering around the five-minute mark which enables the band to make and milke everything out of their point and move on, without overstaing their welcome and makes for a much more immediate and digestible listening experience without doing away with andy of their genre's inherent quality or effectiveness. Having said that, the album is still a bit too long, and future relases could do with having a few tracks shaved off, but the template and talent is there, and—if nothing else—the album has been a great way to start my mornings before easing back into the grind.