SHIT AND SHINE
Cherry
(Riot Season)

THE DEVIL AND THE SEA
Heart Vs Spine
(AND)

LATITUDES
Bleak Epiphany in Slow Motion
(Shelsmusic)

THE GATES OF SLUMBER
Conqueror
(Profound Lore)

DEICIDE
Till Death Do Us Part
(Earache)

MOURNING BELOVETH
A Disease for the Ages 

(Grau)

AVSKY
Malignant

(Moribund)

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2008 is definitely a year of continuous wet dreams for post rock enthusiasts. Like with any other genre that spontaneously combusts in our ears, the post rock subgenre is bound to awaken justified skepticism; the more post-rock bands start unleashing recordings the more the well-promoted crappy ones will give post rock a bad name.  Our job is then to search through the dirt, to scour the surface, to light up the underground and find that diamond in the rough. Or that obviously talented band that’s been sadly overlooked and that, as bad luck may have it, may just be forgotten and relegated to the anus of metaldom.   Frankly, I am among the skeptics. Always will be one. I don’t believe in aliens, I don’t believe in conspiracy theories and I sure as all fuck don’t believe in Santa Claus. As a consequence, I don’t believe in bands that follow a trail. This, I hope, makes me an objective judge. If not, just an asshole with an opinion.

So when I approach this release by this English quartet I do it with a cold mind. I didn’t know anything about Latitudes. I didn’t even know they played instrumental music along the lines of Isis or Pelican to cite you just two kin minded groups. But it just took a few seconds to figure this one out; “Dreamland Precipice” is all about the big riffs. But think not stadium rock and pyrotechnics. Think of open field riffage that slowly comes to form, think quiet to loud to quiet dynamics and think of moving and extended pieces of music. It should have sucked. Big time. But it didn’t.

Bleak Epiphany in Slow Motion moves you like it should. It is at times mighty good.  But it breaks no new ground and represents all the abstract logic that’s been represented many times before by the likes already mentioned in this review.  So as long as the quality is there, why do we have to weigh post rocking bands with a different scale than say a rock and roll band that will only be judged based in its songwriting abilities and musical chops?  Just because post rock is the genre du jour? Because it is sprouting all over the place like some sort of fairy went about sprinkling post rock seeds in the new and old world? Yeah, tough shit. Life isn’t fair. It’s just tougher for the good ones and they’ll be all the better because of it.

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