Earth Moves

Human Intricacy

Written by: KW on 07/01/2020 21:50:51

We return to England once more for some more emotional gutter punches. Earth Moves had flown completely beneath my radar before a random YouTube recommendation started playing while I was minding my own business, and man am I glad that it did. If you’re like me and enjoy some intense music with grand atmospheres and genuine emotion, look no further than their latest outing “Human Intricacy”.

The droning post metal riffs and drums of the short intro track “Falling Away from the Ground” showcase a hopeless musical quality and a sense of impending doom like no other. Jordan Hill’s vocals display a raw, desperate quality — like a man perpetually in emotional disarray — and this one was one of the first things that truly made my jaw hit the floor. I’d almost call this emo post-metal, as his voice sounds like a heavier version of a vocal style most prominently heard amongst some of the modern emo greats like La Dispute or Piano Become the Teeth, but here it’s re-contextualised with some earth-shattering production and slow, gloomy riffage. “Into the Ether” continues this expression with some fantastically creative drumming from Gary Marsden (also of We Never Learned to Live) in a grandiose song that effortlessly switches up tempos and moods, almost schizophrenically, yet not gratingly so.

“Other Voices, Other Rooms” turns the post-hardcore sensibilities up to 11, and could’ve well been a Birds in Row song with it’s fast, punky drumming. The helplessness seeps through every crack in the atmosphere in this one, and hits almost depressing levels in the last few clean chords when the intensity drops all the way down, like finding rest after a panic attack. Then, “Catatonic” hits with its swingy post-metal drumming and tremolo-picking, and quickly becomes one of the many highlights of the record when the double pedals start relentlessly pounding beneath Hill’s cries:

“Your head is a hospital bed

You are all in physically

Your head is a hospital bed

You move through me”

God damn, do these guys know how to create an effective buildup and subsequent climax, but the best was apparently yet to come as “Their Eternal Home” starts blending the heavy post-metal with blackgaze-style, lofty atmospheres, and it simply contains one of the most satisfying conclusions I’ve heard all year, when the song goes through mountains of reverb and shimmering in its slow mid-section, before slowly but surely speeding up again. While you see the end result coming from a mile away, the resulting blastbeats and wailing guitars are no less effective, and it all culminates in one of the truly transcendental moments of 2019.

I cannot recommend this album enough if you need something akin to a catharsis in musical form. While it is a heavy listen, in more ways than simply musically, it also features obviously genuine emotion to the core. Any fan of the grandiose and depressing side of things should give this one a spin, ‘cause this band is not garnering nearly the attention they deserve. Consider me thoroughly impressed!

9

Download: Into the Ether; Other Voices Other Rooms Catatonic; Genic; Their Eternal Home
For the fans of: Conjurer, Pallbearer, Pijn
Listen: Facebook

Release date 15.11.2019
Through Love Records

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