Review Summary: One year after the split with The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die shocked the emo world, Deer Leap are back and bigger than ever with their first full length album Here. Home.
Deer Leap are certainly a band that came out of nowhere, rising to prominence after releasing a split with an already well established band The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die , and before that they had only released an instrumental demo. Less than a year after said split, Deer Leap has dropped their first full length album,
Here. Home. and are ready to stand the test of not having a bigger band to fall back on, they're all on their own here and
Here. Home. perfectly demonstrates the New Hampshire three piece's compressed and short post-rock sound and emotional atmospheric core and delivers on Deer Leap's potential to thrive on their own.
The most noticeable difference from the split to Here. Home. is that the vocals have majorly improved. While they were used sparingly on the split, here they sound more confident and are used to better effect. The vocalist has a very airy tone to his voice that helps build the atmosphere, and his new found confidence also allows for some astonishing big choruses like in the opener "Here," and the incredible "Walls Become The World All Around." The track "Home" has some subtle use of falsetto sitting in the back of the track that builds onto the already amazing atmosphere. "Walls Become The World All Around" is clearly the best track on the album, having everything that could be desired in a indie/post-rock song. Its catchy sing along vocals along with its ambience is a combination that is unmatched and demonstrates the band at their very best.
The full sound Deer Leap are able to achieve as a three piece is very impressive, especially in their ability to craft large sounding choruses and songs that are simultaneously catchy and atmospheric.
Here. Home. is not without its faults however, it's a bit top heavy and rather short at 28 and a half minutes over the course of nine songs and it feels a bit rushed coming out a mere year after the split. The real meat of the album is the first half where all of the stand out tracks reside, the second half is more of a atmospheric, post-rock affair which is still good, but has been done better by other bands in the genre.
Here. Home. is still an impressive debut from a band that once served only as a teaser for The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die; and with its medley of superb indie and post-rock tendencies,
Here. Home. proves Deer Leap can stand on their own, are on the top of their game, and are a band worth noticing that will surely surprise a lot of people in the near future.
