Portal to the God Damn Blood Dimension show the powerful harmony that can come from combining emotionally resonant orchestral post-rock, and human voices that are breaking at the seams because they really god damn care about what they're yelling about. We first became acquainted with the Salt Lake City ensemble back in 2020 with their debut Rotten Fruit; Regular Orchard, which brought a fresh and passionately raw take on the “chamber music” style of post-rock popularized by Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Given the year of the release and the *gestures vaguely* world events going on, the group unfortunately was unable to play any shows or tour to support the album.
Over time, this period of inactivity led their ensemble of 7-8 active members to deplete down to just 3. Despite this dearth, the remaining members got back to work on the new album, Diluvium Cantos. With recording beginning in 2022, they gradually built the group back up again from 3 to 10 musicians, filling roles such as violas, violins, flugelhorns, sax, and more. Cellist, pianist and backing vocalist, Scott JW, expands on this: “Finding, integrating and recording this new group of musicians was a painstaking process that caused the record to take almost two years to finish tracking and a number of months to mix. Despite this extended cycle, the material is some of our favorite to play.”
With that many members contributing to a release over a lengthy period of time, it's normal for it to take on multiple meanings depending on who you ask, but Scott suggests that if their first album was their sad album, Diluvium Cantos is the angry one. "Without focusing on any particular narrative, the album is about apostasy. It’s about how organizations who claim to be of a higher calling hoard their help and support for those who need it the least. That faith often dies by a thousand cuts."
The group managed to play a number of shows on the west coast earlier this year, and if you were fortunate to catch them you likely already heard most of this release! And my envy is high, because this is really the sort of music optimized for a live setting. Overflowing with passion, their music grabs you by the collar and demands your attention and every ounce of emotion left in your heart. And if you let it, it will fill that heart with a fury and vitality that courses through your veins. Diluvium Cantos accomplishes this across it's three tracks of stirring, string-laden post-rock accented by poetic spoken word that often teeters on the edge before breaking into fervent screams.
The writing uses post-rock's strength of tension-stretching and swelling, but the crescendos and climaxes feel like an earned and necessary part of a larger journey that you’re caught up in. You feel yourself dangling on that edge with them, feeling their pain, their grief, their wrath. But then there’s a light. A hand reaching out, and a sense of bliss washes over you. You’ve travelled through the Portal to the God Damn Blood Dimension and are now floating in the Diluvium Cantos.
Listen below and support this lovely independent band on Bandcamp, and stream the album everywhere December 5th.
-TB