Review of Upcoming Gifts From Enola Album From Fathoms

Post-rock can be a dangerous genre to tackle. First, you've got to figure out if you've got the chops to remain musically appealing and diverse, after all much of post-rock is based around long instrumental passages and an ability to transition. Second, you've got to find a way to come at the genre that is more creative than just build and break, build and break. Sure, post-rock may not be packing the airwaves or MTV, but there are enough established bands in the genre already that if you want a chance at the plate you better be ready to hit a home run.

These are the challenges Gifts From Enola face with their third album, From Fathoms, and for the most part they succeed. The musicianship offered here is technical without being overbearing, and diverse without being out on a limb quality. Then there is also the band's ability to ponder all sorts of instrumental passages rather than just the release tension cliché. The tempos and moods shift here expertly and often in dramatic and unexpected ways.

Opener "Benthos" may seem like it is set to ride trite post-rock prerequisites into the ground, but instead manages some jaw-dropping shifts. Opening with a warm beautiful nod to Appleseed Cast the song at first goes through the soft/loud routine, showing that Gifts From Enola could have scored Friday Night Lights just as well as Explosions in the Sky, before suddenly dipping into the sort of rhythmically complex post-hardcore of At the Drive-In and finally and a metal-tinged freak out of epic and noisy proportions.

"Weightless Frame" rests somewhere between the thick shoegazing guitars of My Bloody Valentine and synth-pop before an extended outro full of acoustic guitar, fuzzy samples, and even harmonica. It might sound strange on paper, but Gifts From Enola manage to make these transitions seamlessly almost as if the song would sound strange anyway else.

Follow up, "Weightless Thought," really changes things up with a choppy post-punk tune that gradually rises to a dangerous boil of overflowing guitar work and cymbal crashes. It is a powerful song that dares you to ignore your want to tap a foot or pound a steering wheel.

"Resurface" is simply a beautiful tune bookended by some sunny and soothing pieces of music. Sure, the middle of the song brings the rock, but even then the tone is more celebratory than enraged. This song bleeds directly into "Melted Wings," which works in much the same way. The song's opening and closing are ponderous and elated bits of hushed instrumentation while the son's mid-section is a jarring blast of full on rock mayhem.

The album closes with the nine-minute "Aves," which, like opener "Benthos," manages to transition between the absolutely brutal and the altogether comforting. Guitars switch from screaming to tip-toeing, while the bass rides grooves or rips holes into the track like a growling beast.

This is post-rock done right, an album full of musical twists and turns played by musicians that have various plans of attack. And well, that is all you can ask for with this genre.