Glow

Oddly upbeat and affirming melodic death metal.

Parts of this album kinda bore me. "Summit," for example, has lots of anthemic singing that gets tedious quickly. The music seems to be celebrating something that it hasn't earned. The quieter and more reflective tracks don't hit home for me either. Again, the band rushes to the climax; they aren't performing a proper build.

I've decided to write about this album anyway, though, because some moments are terrific. The sharper edges on the second half of "Tempest" give this music the energy it needs to make the transition back into celebratory gauze feel more earned. I also love the contrast between the pure male vocals and the growly second voice. Can every album have a section with that effect? It always works for me.

But the best part of this album is the trilogy at the end. Part 1 has no vocals; it's just an exploration of a bunch of themes and textures, and for me, this is the most gripping part of the album because it doesn't feel forced or determined to make an impression. The lead-in to Part 2 is masterful. Part 3 has an awkward section with a guy reading cheesy dialogue, and the tone becomes too triumphant and celebratory again, though not as egregiously as on the earlier tracks.

Overall, some interesting stuff here, though my advice to the band would be that the tension before the grand climax is often more interesting than the climax itself, and climaxes are not meaningful unless they resolve something.