Review Summary: This is a strong release by Post Death Soundtrack that is recommended to anyone interested in ambient, alternative rock, industrial metal, and trip-hop.
When it comes to music discovery, perhaps the most single important aspect is our 'sound path' that leads to journeying into new musical groups and styles. No one comes out of the womb listening to post-rock, IDM or ambient cosmic extreme funeral drone doom metal. As such, the path is often littered with bands that share similarities with each other, gradually spiralling out until the first band you loved bears almost no resemblance to the latest thing on your playlist. As such, the way in which we discover new sounds often stems from initially searching for similar-sounding groups to our then-favourites.
The reason this leads to something new is because very seldom do these 'similar-sounding bands' actually sound exactly like what we were hoping for. Dream Theater and Opeth are both often grouped together under the progressive metal banner, but rarely do their respective sounds actually overlap in any meaningful way. The same can be said of Massive Attack and Portishead, with the former concentrating far more on the hip-hop side of the genre than the latter, who melded their beats with alternative rock, blues and ambient, among others.
So why all this rambling? The reason being that I am here to tell you about the latest album, titled
The Unlearning Curve, from the Canadian collective,
Post Death Soundtrack, and to say that it sounds how you would imagine a mix between Massive Attack and Skinny Puppy to sound... except not quite. While it would be a stretch to say that this is something new, there is certainly a good amount of originality flowing through these tracks. Opener, “That Which Is”, is a slow-burning gothic rock song replete with some slightly Radiohead-sounding backing vocals, while “You Can't Go Back” brings psychedelic rock and ambient into the mix.
The band's members operate out of Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto, leading to them to self-describe themselves as an inter-city music collective, using the internet to collaborate across the country. Despite this, their sound is remarkably cohesive and it's clear that the members are all on a similar wavelength musically. “Our Time Is Now” is undoubtedly an album highlight, with the dark, eerie atmosphere and electronic backing making for The Unlearning Curve's first real standout. “Little Alice” takes the darkness even further, venturing into full-on industrial metal replete with a creepy Alice in Wonderland theme. This track truly shows the band's versatility, with riffs that would satisfy even the pickiest of metalheads.
The late cuts go in a far more atmospheric and ambient direction. The first of this trilogy is the dark piano ballad, “Through the Gates”, which works effectively after the heaviness of the previous track, although is perhaps not one of the best numbers in and of itself. Then comes “Dance with the Devil”, which utilises some haunting synths to create its moody atmosphere. It feels like a continuation of the idea behind “Through the Gates”, but is far more effective than that track with its repeated refrain of “dance with the devil, tonight” and subtle backing instrumentation making for a much more fulfilling experience. The closer, “Transform in White Light”, is a suitable, if somewhat unexplosive way to end the album. The ambience exuded by the previous two songs carries over into this one, but it adds a bouncier tempo and catchier vocal harmonies to the mix. As mentioned previously, it's not the best song on the album and the group probably could have made the album experience slightly better by ending things on a stronger note, but overall it does what it should and leads
The Unlearning Curve to a safe landing.
This is a strong release by Post Death Soundtrack that is recommended to anyone interested in ambient, alternative rock, industrial metal, and trip-hop. There is enough substance here to satisfy fans of any of the aforementioned genres and artists, and the album can be streamed and downloaded for free or name-your-price on Bandcamp [url]https://postdeathsoundtrack.bandcamp.com[/url]
Recommended.
