MARCH INTO THE SEA

This is Pelican's second EP, which contains two songs, and was released only a month before the album The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw. The title track is a 20 minute+ epic, while the second track is a Justin Broadrick remix of Angel Tears, a song that was featured on their album Australasia.

March Into The Sea begins with a dirty. sludgy guitar riff, something that really captured my interest straight away I have to admit, because I was so eager to see where it would go from there. At 0:26, the whole band of Trevor de Brauw and Laurent Schroeder-Lebec on guitars and the brotherly duo of Bryan and Larry Herweg on bass guitar and drums respectively all kick in on the mix, and it has an big impact. An immense crushing wall of sound results, which to me sounds like the difficulty of marching into a story sea. Fortunately, with all that dense textural guitar going on, there is still a noticeable bass sound courtesy of Bryan, so kudos to him being heard in the mix. The onslaught of sludge keeps pounding you, while the other guitar contrasts this and provides intricate melodies. At around 3:17, the band begins to ease off a little, and we get a major key feel, which is very effective at easing off the tension which can be more obviously felt when the Larry's drumming becomes a little less prominent. Around 5:30, there is another highly noticeable shift in what is a song that already has plenty of movement. The riffage at 5:41 always really captured my interest for some reason, just something about the way the Trevor and Laurent seamlessly blend two dark parts together to make something more evil sounding than the sum of its parts. We even see the band incorporate an odd time signature to add interest, and to keep the tension up. Larry's addition of double bass drumming around this makes the song even more immense and that is definitely impressive given how crushing this song already showed us up to this point. The band shows a sign of easing up just before the 7 minute mark and not long after we have some very touching quieter melodic moments from Laurent and Trevor, with Larry suitable more restrained for this moment too. For a little while the bass guitar is not very audible, leaving a lot of room for the guitar parts to shine, but have no fear, as Bryan kicks in once again as things get moving along. After this section, the band goes into a crescendo along with Bryan coming back into the mix more noticeably, and by about 10:30, the band is back to roaring and pounding and images of a final struggle to march into an incredible stormy sea are evoked. The song goes into quiet mode, with sounds like keys, although there is no one credited with keys, so that may cause some confusion for some. Acoustic guitar strumming goes along with the ambient and incredibly hypnotic feel of the rest of the song. More of what sounds like other keyboard parts, and flute parts too which was definitely a pleasant surprise. Somehow, the band managed to make this section not make it feel excessively long, but instead flowing and natural. I really get the sense of rest and peacefulness in this section. A perfect song, with so many different emotions and images to be evoked in your imagination.

Next up is Justin Broadrick's remix of Angel Tears. Having really enjoyed the original song, I was hoping for something good here too. I have to say, I liked this remix even more than I expected. Broadrick masterfully gives it a very atmospheric feel to it. He puts in additional noises and programmed beats and gets the arrangement and takes it somewhere else, but never do I feel like it's anything but Angel Tears, just a reinterpretation of the song. This is not an easy thing to do, but it was done here, to amazing effect. Kudos to Justin's work on this remix and making it as uplifting and emotional as one might hope.

I honestly cannot find any real flaws in this EP, and given it's a very good length for an EP, just makes it even more appealing. The title track is epic, in sound and length, is very tightly written and displays fantastic post metal musicianship and ideas. This is a definitely one for every post metal fan out there.