Review Summary: Winter is com- ah, forget it.
Since the days of its conception, A Slow Descent’s main thematic element has been the desolation of space. Nash J.’s previous work,
Sorry, We’re Closed was a departure from that, preferring to go for a scrambled, more mysterious effect. With his newest album,
Encased In Ice and Sealed In Snow, Nash focused mainly on trying to make a return to form, which is more or less what we’re presented with.
“Wake Up Face Down in the Middle of a Violent Blizzard” is about as pleasant as you can imagine, with an ethereal soundscape composed of a thunderous bass harmony and a wall of mollifying synthesizers in the foreground. “Icy Blue Ghosts and Icy Blue Snow” follows up on this, consisting of spastic, uncoordinated electronic beats mingling alongside a brassy synth melody. There’s a very alien feeling flowing through the music, especially due to all the uncanny, otherworldly-sounding electronic melodies, such as those on “Secrets Encased In Ice and Sealed In Snow”.
However, herein lies the underlying imperfection of
Encased In Ice and Sealed In Snow. Despite being a concept album, the flow can be very inconsistent at times, which, while adding to the jarring intonation, can also come off as a bit sloppy. Take closing track “Dance With Me Upon His Secret Ocean Until The End of Time” for example. There’s nothing particularly wrong with the track itself; the keyboards are as exquisite as ever, and the perplexing mood shifts are all there, but it doesn’t quite coincide with the preceding song. It’s understandable why he’d want to save it for last from a narrative standpoint, but it honestly feels as though “Learning the Answers To Your Existence” would have been a better place to end the album, and that the latter track could be made to fit in differently.
All-in-all,
Encased In Ice and Sealed In Snow is mostly more of the same, which isn’t a poor concept on ASD’s part. Even with some of the less consistent bits and pieces, the music still webs itself together fairly cohesively, fluctuating between booming ambient noise and placid, glitchy synthesizers. Five albums in and still going strong, there seems to be nothing slowing Nash’s descent (I’m so sorry) into the gloominess of deep space. Now, if only we could get another split with a certain experimental punk musician from Maine….
