Review Summary: With A Determinism of Morality, Rosetta come closer than they ever have to being the band that they've always claimed to be
With
A Determinism of Morality, Rosetta come closer than they ever have to being the band that they've
always claimed to be. Indeed, throwing off the “post-metal” tag is a hobby that this Pennsylvania quartet have specialized in since their inception in 2003, choosing to remain rather undefined, genre-wise – just go ahead and picture them being somewhere on a post-hardcore, avant-garde, post-rock satellite of sorts orbiting
Neurosis to clear things up, I guess. Ironic that the band are often accredited for being one of post-metal’s leaders, though, isn’t it? They may put every effort into angering the
true fans of the genre by adding self-indulgent inclusions into their take on the picture-perfect framework of their influences, but many can’t deny that the band are strikingly close to a
Cult of Luna with a more immediate delivery and extended array of shoegaze aesthetics, or even
The Ocean circa-
Precambian condensed into an hour, now can they? I guess you could call it layman’s post-metal - I can understand why the sceptics might – but God it’s
good stuff!
Rosetta dive head-first into their un-namable “
metal for astronauts,” run-away-from-post-metal passion by shortening song lengths and by further bridging the gap between the loud and soft dynamics that presided over 2005’s
The Galilean Satellites and 2007’s follow-up,
Wake/Lift. When it comes down to it,
A Determinism of Morality is the band’s easiest album to take in for listeners: the learning curve is seemingly miniscule, making for an experience that's relatively more accessible compared to the band's past works; J Matthew Weed’s guitar work is not working in and of itself anymore – meaning, it flows
within the songs with finesse, syncing to and fro with the ambient sections, and is not just acting as the expected climax to a build-up or an explosion after a tame section of the music - and more attention is now placed on melody throughout the album that approaches the realm of the conventional. Make no mistake, though – this is still a Rosetta album,
surely. Michael Armine is in top form as always. His tortured, anguished howls are unmistakable here, and where he first beat an astronaut’s journey and regret in space with dual-disc
The Galilean Satellites into the contracting faces of listeners, and then urgently relayed the dangers of poor parenting for children in
Wake/Lift, he now enters the ongoing debate of “nature vs. nurture” on
A Determinism of Morality in classic form, giving the fans everything that they loved about his delivery in the first place.
Yet I’m almost positive that you will be initially disappointed with
A Determinism of Morality, especially if you are a fan of Rosetta’s past work. You see, one of the joys of
The Galilean Satellites, much less
Wake/Lift, was that well-earned reward via the
boom: the distinct and obvious polarization of the quiet and loud sections of the album that rewarded the listener greatly on each end of the spectrum. Here it’s a bit more controlled and, as stated, seamless. The center of audio gravity seems to be defined and placed more in the middle, pulling the louder and quieter sections closer to the mean where extreme instances in each are rather rare occurrences. This works in the long run, though, as
A Determinsim of Morality has a much smoother flow and rate of consistency overall. However, that jaw-dropping, distorted-power-pounding of past releases is definitely missed, and it’s not likely that Rosetta will overwhelmingly floor you once again. Fortunately, though, the band members themselves refuse to give up anything with the new change in direction: in addition to the afforementioned work of Armine and Weed, David Grossman’s bass is now much more prevalent throughout, and drummer Bruce Lurtrie Jr. is an ingredient to the controversial genetic cake that is vital to the overall success of
A Determinism of Morality.
Rosetta’s changes work in the long run on
A Determinism of Morality, if making for an initially underwhelming album. This is still the Jeff Buckley and Stars of the Lid-loving band that first destroyed our senses with
The Galilean Satellites in 2005, and this is still “
metal for astronauts,” so to speak; it’s just that the band are finding their own, wholly unique sound now, finally succeeding in further distancing themselves from that dreaded genre tag. I guess I will wait to say whether I think the changes will pay off well in the long run for Rosetta, though. Just turn up that distortion peddle a little higher next time around, please, and we’ll get along just fine, thank you.
