UK instrumentalist blends math, post-rock and djent on emotionally rich second LP.
The title of Bristol guitarist Michael Astley-Brown’s eclectically free-flowing second album attempts to capture the cyclical nature of mental health. It’s no surprise, then, that its musical content unfurls with a bipolar sway of gloomy lows and euphoric highs.
Written in the months following 2020’s self-titled debut album, Astley-Brown attempted to ramp up every element of his sound. Where the patient, swathing post-rock textures of opener Hello, It’s Been A While feels like a surge of melancholia washing over a fragile mind, its snapping title track sees the guitarist dancing through hopeful and happy math rock licks with a fierce energy. Monolith’s grinding polyrhythmic riffs and wheezing math rock endeavours play off one another’s contrasting darkness and hope.…
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Prog (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 143