Heavy instrumental (post) rock. One word describes this: EPIC! Awesome musicianship, especially drums and guitar, without being too ridiculous or too flamboyant. This Chicago-based trio arguably delivers its best recording to date. The addition of violin and cello is very appropriate and adds a kind of "classical" style epic quality (again without being ridiculous). While most tracks follow the textbook post-rock formula of build, build, explode, both troughs and peaks are interesting enough that the whole thing works very well. If you are into Red Sparowes, Pelican, Slint, Mono, Explosions In The Sky, Mogwai, Do Make Say Think, Godspeed definitely give this a listen.

Picks: 5,2,3,7 *** No FCCs ***

1. hah! string intro, full of urgency, then the drums kick in, followed by the guitar. pretty heavy opener, reminiscent of the good points in Isis or Pelican, ends quietly like it started...
**2. heavy, kinda like the heavier moments of their first album Enter, Neurosis style (minus the vocals). bitching guitar, KICKASS bass @-3:26
*3. wow, intro is dark and doomy as hell... pretty obvious that this is bound to explode. and it does, in a slow, determined way, after bringing in the strings, going through smaller ups and downs, tempo changes, all the post-rock tricks are used here... good stuff
4. the quiet slow break in between the heaviness
***5. hell yeah! kinda proggy and electric, a la Mazerati, but heavier, like Earthless. nice drumming. awesome!
6. dark, bleak acoustic intro builds up into a mini-crescendo midway, only to get quiet and then build up again into a furious exit, squealing guitars and everything, nice use of horns
*7. noisy guitar feedback intro, gives way to this pretty cute semi-classical acoustic piece, which builds up into an Explosions In The Sky style crescendo... probably the most upbeat track in the album , ends with about a minute of guitar feedback