Review Summary: One more cool brick to the generic post-rock edifice.
Post-rock is undoubtedly a quite popular genre these days on the underground scene. A huge number of bands have been founded in the past years, most of them having recorded numerous EP's. In this plethora of artists it has become difficult to stand out of the crowd, and among the massive wave of so-called post-rock releases, many sound very similar to each other, even in the experienced listener's ear.
In this context Magma Waves, a freshly formed German quartet, manages to create three interesting tracks, yet clearly not genre-revolutionizing, as both follow the many times seen alternation of calm ambient phases, shredded guitar crescendos, and almost metal-sounding climaxes with powerful riffs. Magma Waves do generic post-rock stuff, but at least they do it very well, as each piece of the record feels either deeply relaxing or strongly beautiful. As it is a self-produced record, it is admirable that the whole albums sounds so well ; attention has obviously been paid to the mixing and mastering, something many DIY bands tend to forget unfortunately.
While they obviously use a wide-known recipe, there is hope that a 'Magma Waves sound' will emerge along the years, with more personal and original records incoming. The Hayao Myiazaki's 'Mononoke Princess' samples used on the record might be a hint of this desirable progress, and all one could wish while listening to this album is that Magma Waves continue on this path. A small band to keep an eye on.
