Review Summary: The demise of mankind is a much more enjoyable experience than you might think.
Atmosphere is a strange part of music. It can be created by almost anything, be it a mellow acoustic passage that lasts under a minute, or an ambient intro that lasts well over five minutes. It can come from any genre of music, from electronic to death metal, from hip hop to hardcore punk, and so on. The basic goal of atmospheric music is to give the listeners an opportunity to think beyond just the mechanical aspect of the music, and to really immerse them within the nature of the song. One of the most accomplished genres of atmospheric music is ambient music. Post-rock giants such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor incorporate huge amounts of ambient music into their compositions to create dark, brooding visions of the apocalypse. But what about the smaller fish? Enter A Slow Descent: A fresh, young artist who has already put out three releases and two full-length albums. With
Utopias, A Slow Descent creates an image of a world after man, in which machines have risen to dominate the Earth, and an enjoyable ride from start to finish.
The story behind
Utopias is, as aforementioned, about an apocalyptic future in which mankind has been conquered by intelligent machines, and these machines have established so-called utopias in place of human civilization, hence where the album derives its name. However, the interesting part about the story is that it isn’t told in chronological order; instead, the story is told in a non-linear way. This makes it so that some of the tracks give off a much more chaotic, almost threatening tone, symbolizing the fall of mankind and the rise of the machines. Others are more haunting and eerie, placing the listener into Earth after humanity’s demise, in a completely synthetic world. Some even take place before the battle, when machines and mankind were living in peace, foreshadowing the events to come. There are plenty of realistic-sounding vocal samples scattered throughout the album, helping to build up the story around these utopias. The instrumental work is also impressive, especially coming from electronic instruments, and the keyboards and bass can occasionally even sound upbeat, which is surprising for an album with the concept of humanity’s extinction as its main theme. In fact, the usage of all-electronic instruments is a huge positive for the album, due to the fact that it helps to really build a futuristic, almost robotic sort of feel that “real” instruments don’t quite have the capability of doing. But most of all, this album manages to utilize atmosphere for exactly what it can do: It pulls in the listener for an immersive experience, and conjures up these images of machines building up a utopian society after defeating mankind in the listener’s mind, allowing for thoughts and discussion to go beyond the music itself. And ultimately, that is the best thing that can be said about an album like this.
Overall, this is a fantastic addition to A Slow Descent’s discography, and for a 12-track name your price album on Bandcamp, it’s absolutely worth downloading. Atmosphere can be incorporated in many different ways, some good and some bad. And in the end, A Slow Descent manages to show off both fantastic storytelling skills and truly thought-provoking atmospheres. Even if you aren’t big on ambient music, this is definitely a great starting point.
