What We All Come To Need

About

2007’s <i>City of Echoes</i> concerned some long-time Pelican fans (too much nuance! not enough heft!) while winning the band new admirers (such nuance for a “metal” band! so accessible for a “post-metal” band!). Their fourth studio album might seal the deal for both camps. <i>What We All Come to Need</i> is more dynamic, more melodic, and somehow heavier and more powerful at the same time. “Glimmer” does indeed glimmer, more than roar, even with rumbling, monstrous bass lines; “The Creeper” builds on dark atmospherics that give way to coiling, grinding guitar riffs that ultimately imply a bittersweet <i>denouement</i> (guest guitarist Greg Anderson of Sunn 0))) surely adds drama here). Two other tracks comprise a quartet of visceral standouts: “Ephemeral” packs more machine-gun wallop here than on the EP of the same name, and “Specks of Light” races along, guitars buzzing like hornets on speed, only to slowly spiral to a close as it creeps to the eight- minute mark. The final cut breaks typical Pelican rules and features the vocals — not too prominently, one might note — of Allen Epley (Shiner, Life and Times) in a neo-ballad, “Final Breath.”

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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