This is the fourth album in the band's history, but I have to say that I'd never heard of the Croatian Emphasis. Meanwhile, the outfit is really fluent at combining post-rock music with heavier, post-metal elements and they prove it on their new album called Lazaret.
The experienced outfit (they've been around at least since 2007) creates guitar-oriented instrumental soundscapes that strike with dense, moody atmosphere and puts angry, shouting post-metal vocals on top of them. These metal vibes can also be heard in the guitars as well, in some places, like in The Gray Man, the clearly post-rock compositions suddenly get stormier and heavier only to get back to the moody instrumental music again. The post-rock nature is only underlined by the inclusion of voice samples that add to the story-telling side of the music. But the strength of this music lies in the perfect balance between the overwhelming post-metal and moody post-rock and this balance is best audible in Flood the Earth where the extremely heavy music gradually takes over the spot lights and offers a fantastic performance.
Lazaret costs 7 EUR.
Check: Flood the Earth
Country: Croatia
Genre: blackened post-rock
Label: Geenger Records
