If Cerberus Shoal has sold the rights to this album to Slint, and they released it marketed as some old demos, no one would be any the wiser. That's not to say that Cerberus Shoal rips off or copies Slint, but the influence is obvious. Seriously, this album sounds like if Slint had a rawer sound and also played emo/screamo. And it really is quite beautiful and, in some sections, heart-wrenching. Bands like La Dispute owe a lot to Cerberus Shoal, as the gorgeous mixture of spoken word and post-rock/emo is a huge, lovely part of the bands' sound, especially on songs like "Elena". Unfortunately, sometimes what Chriss Sutherland says is too quiet to hear over the guitars, and occasionally songs will overstay their welcome a bit. However, this record is an important listen, if only for the notion that it doesn't quite sound like much else in Cerberus Shoal's discography, which would experiment with countless genres as time went on.
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