DOWSING ANEMONE WITH COPPER TONGUE

If Choirs of the Eye was the metal expansion of post rock (structurally it had the same uses of the quiet to loud formula in some pieces--occasionaly leavened by quieter,spacey, and shorter pieces that seemed to have a jazz influence in them), then Dowsing Anemone I think is something that has grown out of drone metal (Sunn 0))) and some Boris).

The tracks are structurally more ambiguous and don't always move in predictable ways, or seemingly sometimes don't even seem to move at all--as in the extended outro of "_______ On Limpid Form" which is an experiment in menace and texture. The album has a much harsher sound than its predecessor that only resolves in "Amaranth the Peddler" with is ambient backing and simple guitar notes chiming along with the deliriously romantic (As in Keats, or Shelly) lyrics.

Kayo Dot, on this album, are using the tools of the metal trade: Distortion, aggression, extended "jams", minor tones, but are using these tools almost outside the confines of metal. They use them in sometimes a classical context, or with jazz instrumentation. Over all I have to say that this album is a step in a different direction for the band, and is mostly enjoyable although I feel that the instrumentation in some places should have been just a little more discernable ("Immortal and Paper Caravelle" sort of just drifts off, I don't have a problem with that--I just wished the song would have made a slightly more concrete statement before drifting aloft on angel wings) in some places.