"Beauty in Denial" is already the tenth (!) album by the English Echo Tail. Although the Cambridge located band describe themselves as prog/post-metal, their genre spectre is super wide, this time they wanted to focus on the shoegaze atmosphere with more aggressive guitars. That's why they called it the "angrier sister" of "Fields of Vision", one of their previous albums.
Indeed, since the instrumental intro, we are faced with raw guitars in the backgrounds and hard-rock riffs at the fronts. Shoegaze sound lovers should be intrigued by the dispersed vocal (sometimes in a spectacular way) that is both full of airy vibes and incredible energy, together with some prog-rock colour. Sounds as if Riverside recorded guitars while drinking energy drinks and the vocal when they sobered up and the adrenaline level lowered down to default.
But not always, the further in the album, the more rockish the vocal is. The most aggressive, almost metal, as if a metal singer decided to whisper, appears to be in "Dispeller" which gives the refreshing energy and passion to the track. This spectacular combination of shoegaze and metal but not so blurred as in the backgaze's musical depression, has attracted me to this album in the first place. The next tracks continue with genre mixing which is a good decision although in some places it gets too hard-rockish for my taste (as in ""Letters to Manilla").
But not always, the further in the album, the more rockish the vocal is. The most aggressive, almost metal, as if a metal singer decided to whisper, appears to be in "Dispeller" which gives the refreshing energy and passion to the track. This spectacular combination of shoegaze and metal but not so blurred as in the backgaze's musical depression, has attracted me to this album in the first place. The next tracks continue with genre mixing which is a good decision although in some places it gets too hard-rockish for my taste (as in ""Letters to Manilla").
"Beauty in Denial" costs 0.5 GBP.
