Genre-straddling Midlanders’ sixth album fine-tunes the winning formula.
IO Earth have long drawn on diverse sounds in constructing their music, the breadth of those sounds reflecting the ebb and flow of the songs’ moods rather than dictating them.
Outside, the opening track of their sixth album, is a fine example, building tension with faintly new age Spanish guitar patterns before the imploring tones of returning Linda Odinsen (back after returning to her native Norway in 2016) become haunted by an increasingly menacing backing vocal whisper and malevolent guitar riffs, then the piece lifts off into pulse-racing bombastic territory redolent of symphonic metal. Similar levels of melodrama are employed on the title track, blended with crackling electronic drums. Then noodling, noirish slithers of synth suggest something weirder is afoot, and a…
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Prog (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 142