Review Summary: Genre Defining.
The Galilean Satellites had a profound effect on my interests in music. I was going through a bit of a dry spell, growing tired of the popular metalcore at the time and running out of decades for my metal exploratory excursions. TGS came to me, miraculously, in my sleep. My iTunes randomly tuned to "Itinerant" as I found myself in one of those not-quite-awake states, noticing the beautiful piano and guitars that serve as the lead-in to the track. When the vocals and band kicked in I was hooked. TGS became my most-listened to album that year and I started a band that pretending not to completely rip them off (luckily Rosetta hadn't gained the acclaim they were destined just yet).
My hopes were astronomical for the new album and it turned out that this would be one of the few times in my life when a sequel managed to dwarf what I had already considered essential (Silent Hill 2, Terminator 2 and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation come to mind) listening/viewing. The most notable difference between Wake/Lift and TGS, aside from diminished metallic riffery found throughout TGS, is the production. Recorded in true hipster / audiophile fashion to analog tape, the band has a very different mix this time around. Guitars reside near the front where once Mike Armine's unmistakable howls and spacey samples dwelled, with the bass and drums hiding further back in the mix. This feels far more organic than TGS did, and it serves the album well as it is far more mature.
Rosetta waste no time setting the bar for their new approach, eschewing the standard for post-metal and leaping right into the deep end with opener "Red in Tooth and Claw", a monstrous twelve minute riff-fest flowing around Matt Weed's infectious, swelling leads and drummer B.J. McMurtrie's outstanding fills (is there a harder-hitting drummer in metal this side of Kenneth Shaulk??). 6:31 represents one of the finer moment's of the band's discography and a wonderful example of the crushing sonic depth that the band is capable of. The song spirals out of control at the end, leading into a more soothing clean guitar passage which sets up the three song "Lift", which achieves mountainous highs and oceanic lows as the band groove in and out of some of the more straightforward riffs that echo what TGS employed so beautifully a couple years prior.
If you are new to Rosetta, "Wake" would likely be a great place to begin, as it is a perfect representation of what the band bring to the table, although nothing that the previous four tracks haven't hit on previously. It is at this point in the album that the typical listener might lose interest, as the fifteen-minute "Temet Nosce" is quite the test of attention and determination of the listener. I find it to be a nice piece centered around gorgeous guitar melodies and distorted drums, but it has always felt as if Rosetta were just showing that they could be this other band too, if they wanted. A smaller dosage might have done the track some good, as at around 30% of the album this serves as a jumping-off point for many, which is a shame because they end it with a bang in "Monument", another lengthy track that suffers from misplacement in my humble opinion.
If the band wanted to swirl off into post-rock heaven with "Wake", "Lift" and "Temet Nosce", I really feel that placing "Monument" as the second track might have done quite some good. To me the ending of the album feels written specifically to be the end of an album, and might easily have been omitted in favor of better pacing. The track feels lost after the drudgery (if you're not into that sort of thing) of "Temet Nosce".
When Rosetta are on (read: MOST OF THE TIME) they are fire. Wake/Lift is genre defining. I have no qualms with putting it up there with Somewhere Along the Highway, Panopticon and Quietly as one of the strongest Post-metal albums ever written, and it stands out due to the low-fi production and Mike Armine's can't-believe-its-not-fake vocals. They have released four albums now, but none achieve such an astonishing blend of crushing depth and spacey, spiraling melodies more so than this.
