Barrens - Corpse Lights (2025)

Their 2020 debut was a shock to me. How can you include such fantastic post-rock music on your first ever album? No wonder I recognize the Swedes as one of my biggest discoveries within the genre in recent years. Now it's time for a difficult step: proving your value on the second album. And, surprise, surprise, Barrens took the step with extreme grace.

The release starts strong with my two favourites: The Derelict and Sorrowed. Those tracks have everything: the engaging but not cringey melodies, the flow, the heaviness to the sound. These are absolute hits if post-rock music can generates hits at all. These must be the pinnacles of the live gigs (I don't know yet, but hopefully I'll find out if that's true soon). They are the parts of the album that will be remembered. After that duo, the Swedes step on the brake pedals and try to enchant the audience with some ambient atmosphere developing into slower grandeur-filled pieces, but, I have to say, I like them best when they are fast and furious.

The album is a well-balanced one. The way the band combines the melodic fragments with darker and heavier ones makes me think that any post-rock fan will surely like this album, but perhaps for different things. I like the darker and heavier, but also faster parts and can honestly say that it's a real continuation of the fantastic debut.

Corpse Lights costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Sorrowed

Country: Sweden

Genre: atmospheric post-rock

Label: Pelagic

Barrens - Penumbra (2020)

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Barrens - Penumbra (2020) PL

Kontynuując przegląd szwedzkich kapel post-rockowych trafiamy na przeciwieństwo wczorajszych Final Days Society - Barrens to debiutująca na scenie formacja. Chociaż nie do końca bo jej muzycy grali wcześniej w zespole Scraps of Tape. Jako Barrens ich pierwszym albumem jest świeża Penumbra.

Właśnie świeże brzmienie to coś, co rzuca się w uszy. Gitarowe dźwięki artystów to prawdziwa dźwiękowa uczta pełna energii i jakości, nie jestem specem, ale wydaje mi się, że pod względem realizacji album zdecydowanie się wybija. Podobnie jak balans między mroczną atmosferą wspomaganą delikatnymi i smutnymi dźwiękami przypominającymi granie na dzwonkach albo szklankach w Atomos a niezwykłą przebojowością niektórych kawałków. Takie Oracle Bones pruje przed siebie nie oglądając się za siebie.

Dodajmy do tego naprawdę brudny finał Arc Eye, klimatyczna chwila wytchnienia w Penumbrze czy w końcu bardzo nieszablonowe rozwiązania w świetnym The Passing i wynika z tego, że debiut Szwedów to jeden z lepszych albumów post-rockowych ostatniego czasu.

Penumbra kosztuje tyle, ile chcesz zapłacić.

Sprawdź: The Passing

Kraj: Szwecja

Szufladka: guitar post-rock

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Barrens - Penumbra (2020) EN

Let's continue the short overview of the Swedish post-rock bands. We meet one that is in opposition to the yesterday's Final Days Society as Barrens is a debuting band. Or not really because the artists played together already in another band called Scraps of Tape. As Barrens their first album is the fresh Penumbra.

Indeed this freshness is something you immediately notice. The guitar sounds here make a real feast filled with energy and quality, I'm no expert but I think the album is outstanding mastering-wise. Another thing is the way the band finds the balance between dark atmosphere helped by this delicate and sad sounds reminding me of playing on keys or glasses in Atomos, and the uncanny  catchiness of some of the tracks. Take Oracle Bones that doesn't stop even for a second.

Let's also add the exceptionally noisy finish of Arc Eye, climatic moment of rest in Penumbra or a huge dose of unorthodox solutions in great The Passing and you can say that the Swedes' debut is one of the best post-rock albums lately.

Penumbra costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: The Passing

Country: Sweden

Genre: guitar post-rock

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