Coming May 22th 2020, "
Bloodletting" is American Post-Metal band
MOUNTAINEER’s third full-length, following their previous efforts: debut album "
Sirens and Slumber" from 2017, and "Passages" from 2018. The band has gone through a couple of line-up changes, with this album being the first record for guitarists
Isaac Rigler and
Forrest Harvey, making it a three-guitar assault, something that truly shows on the heaviest sections of the record.
MOUNTAINEER mostly sticks to the Post-Metal moniker, infusing distortion and some gnarly, harsh vocals to their Post-Rock based and Shoegaze-tingled compositions, although there is a bit of experimentation too, mainly when it comes to vocal harmonization. Clean guitars give way to wall-of-sound distorted passages and a solid yet simple rhythm section works to lay down hypnotic grooves.
Opener "
Blood of the Book" features some beautiful vocal harmonies at the very beginning, with an almost folky quality to them. The clean guitar work in here adds a lot of light to a melancholic and at times anxious track. Harsh vocals clash with cleans, while the song-structure shifts through various moods. Atmopsheric and violent, a lovely and expansive song to begin with.
The shorter tracks in here, all still ranging between four and five minutes and a half in length, seem to be more on the Shoegaze end of the band’s sound, sometimes even Noise- and Dream Pop-tingled. Effected vocals and muddy guitars with heavy but never too heavy distortion. This is particularly clear on "
Apart", a track that would not be that out of place on a
MY BLOODY VALENTINE album. This also applies to CD and Digital only bonus track, the groovy "
Still".
The other two four-to-five-minute-long tracks are a little bit more straightforward in their songwriting, with "
The Weeds I Have Tended" having a little bit of a Post-Hardcore edge on its vocals and "
Bloodletting" being slower paced, with a dash of Doom melancholy and beautiful acoustic touches on the mix.
When the band decides to go over the six-minute mark, things more into exploratory Post-Metal territory. Repetitive songs with shifting tempos and soft-loud-soft dynamics. Never too predictable, this band avoids the trappings of other Post-Metal bands that basically sound like
EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY with more distortion.
The experimental songwriting might not be too out-there, but it is commendable in its diversity and creativity. Take for instance closer "
Ghost Story" that feels like an Alternative Rock power ballad, filtered through Post-Metal lenses. The clean guitar and vocals only verses are outstanding in their vulnerability. Meanwhile, "
To Those We’ve Said Goodbye" is an exercise in building an equally heartwarming and heartbreaking crescendo. A eulogy to the dead.
"
Shot Through With Sunlight" and "
South to Infinity" are the more dynamic songs overall. The former moves through pastoral sections with spidery clean guitars and kick drum-driven, noisy outbursts. The latter, takes a sludgier tone for its first two minutes, before descending into pure Post-Rock, deconstructing into ambience and going out with a fashionable explosion of sound.
Overall, "
Bloodletting" is a fantastic record from
MOUNTAINEER, an eight-track collection (nine with its bonus track) of mood pieces, that manages to exorcise a couple of demons through musical power. Production-wise I found a little clipping on some of the louder sections, which made it a bit too noisy at times, and I would not have minded if the bass were more prominent in the mix. Aside from that, a solid album filled with well-written songs and tons of emotion.
Songwriting: 9
Musicianship: 8
Memorability: 7
Production: 8