Black Clouds
Everything Is Not Going To Be OK

Release Date: 2012 | Tracklist

Black Clouds does well in creating a focused mood of effective post-rock with feelings of ambience and psychedelia. From the beginning the listener is subdued by an instant atmosphere reverb laced simple effects that sound like a growling machine-like tiger that carries its progressive nature into slow building guitar effects that aim to detract your mind from its present surroundings. At this same time the drums kick in and you realize the drummer is very capable of creating interesting well fitted patterns that break from the common monotony found in most post-rock acts. After constant moments of psychedelic atmospheres tracks will occasionally break the cycle with poly-rhythmic chants to carry the mood of frosty ambiance. It may even sometimes seem like the album starts off slow and reserved but this is to serve the purpose of Black Clouds goal which is to create a sound that is never forced. There is effective amount of variance on each track where “Patheons” feels like clean sections of In Flames “Moonshield” and “Parallels” contains the more traditional post rock sounds of building bass kick repetitions over simultaneous chord rhythms. Regardless of musical technique the drummer always adds a bit of a spark to each moment and truly carries forward momentum of the album. Even the guitar harmonies can break out of the post-rock mold of ambient delayed effects with odd timed segments that sound reminiscent of Tool’s guitarist past works off “Lateralus” fully apparent on “Divide”. One of my favorite tracks, “In the Ether”, contains some of the most rewarding progressive moments with a memorable catchy riff that again sounds like previous works off Tool’s catalogue. The drums on this same track are so perfect you don’t even notice them from time to time as they so fuse flawlessly as one being with the backgrounds moving guitar textures. The latter part of the song sounds very similar to the accomplished works of post-rock band Jakob, album being “Solace”. The varience off “Everything Is not Going to be Alright” is what really made this album work for me as I sometimes can’t stand the level of boring post-rock acts around today.

Now will you feel like everything is not going to be alright after listening to this album? Probably not since the chilly theme isn’t always consistent as there are a few tracks that tend to get a little happy, but maybe Black Clouds meant this album to give off a glimmer of hope. But I didn’t find that to be the case when the bold closer for the first time includes snippets at the end of man speaking grandiose words of condemnation who closes his speech with the album’s title phrase which the band choose to repeat over and over, at least 30-40 times. This repeating fits well over a droning atmosphere that really hits the point of the album home, which I don’t need to repeat again.

If you’re looking post-rock that attempts to be different than its contemporaries with darker atmosphere and solid drumming then this is where you should be looking. Black Clouds shows they are capable and willing to push the genre and may have a bit of a ways to go but any fan of darker post-rock outfits should be eager to see what these guys do next.

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3.7 great

Rank: #0 for 2012