Post-rock, shoegaze, psychedelia, and prog rock. Falsetto vocals and saxophone. Finnish band Kairon; IRSE! destroy genre expectations and transcend mortality in their thunderous, immersive, absolutely enchanting voyages of sound. Contemplative solo guitar passages invite and intertwine with apocalyptic post-rock journeys, and walls of sound entrance in both fiercely pummeling and intensely dreamlike ways. One of my favorite albums ever.

Others: Silver Mt. Zion, Deafheaven, Catherine Wheel, The Psychic Paramount
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1. (5:02) ** Valorians—Thick searing guitar assaults, propulsive bass, dreamy indistinguishable vocals. "Feel me floating away."
2. (9:44) *** Tzar Morei—Clean electric guitar and clear vocals alternate with headbanging territory and clouded siren-like synths. Silver Mt. Zion-esque jam starts about midway—fingerpicking progressively brings in more clarion guitar tones soon veiled in reverb. 7:00 until the end… just stunning.
3. (7:17) * Amsterdam—Repeated five-note guitar line switches off routinely with layers of blaring guitars and syrupy shoegaze and doom textures.
4. (9:40) *** Swarm—Unsettlingly calm washes of guitar and whispered vocals give way to superhumanly-fast drumming and decaying metallic guitars and synths. Totally insane outro—a jazzy melody that transforms into an absolutely massive guitar breakdown.
5. (8:26) * Rulons—Instrumental passages with sax and ethereal silver guitars. No words. Layers of blistering distorted guitars soar over an anchored groove. Mind-altering euphoria.
6. (10:54) ** Les, Moh y Gribi—Majestic guitars and brimming tensions that steadily build and release. Blown-out psychedelic guitar jam at 6:40. This feels like the culmination of all that Kairon; IRSE! is: the fury, the ecstasy, the hope gleaming through impossibly blinding walls of sound.