YOUNG MOUNTAIN

Post rock is a genre often accused of being stagnant, never moving forward, simply repeating the same thing over and over to no end. While I do find there to be a formula in the genre, starting off slowly and quietly and building up to explosive climaxes, I feel like this is a very simplistic way of looking at the genre as a whole, as many bands have their own nuances and takes on it. This Will Destroy You, while being quite Post Rock by numbers in its songwriting, follows the general compositional style of bands such as Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky. The difference this artist has compared to those is that the band has a certain emotional warmth to it, compared to the sparse, minimalistic nature of Mogwai or the more uplifting, all encompassing emotion brought forth by EITS. This is also quite a bit more eventful than a lot of post rock I've heard, having long stretches of wall of sound and climactic moments, making it also a somewhat more accessible album than their counterparts.

Quiet sets up what the album is going to sound like quite quickly, begiining with some isolated, yet beautiful keyboard chords, then backed up by a nice drumbeat and guitars that fade in and out. The main focus of the song is this constant build up that never lets up, as these quiet, pleasant melodies are replaced with increasingly loud and distorted guitars, until the final section becomes more noise than song, with a layer of distrotion over everything, becoming absolutely massive sounding by the end. The World is Our ___ is a more varied song, with multiple peaks throughout, each valley to follow providing something different, my personal favourite being where the song briefly takes a more electronic route. As before, the song ends in a massive climax involving extensive amounts of distortion. The album definitely ends up being slightly weaker past these first two poewrful tracks, but nothing here is what I'd consider bad either. Each of them are slightly different in the bigger picture, but I'm given fairly similar impression from all of them, that imporession fortunately being a very positive one, as despite the relative quality of these being lower, each song still carries immense power. This is all within the confines of a much simpler sound, focusing much less on the ambience and imagery of many post rock giants, instead crafting excellent melodies brimming with a sense of personal optimism shrouded in a veil of melancholy, creating conflicting emotions in such a beautiful way, causing the listener to feel wistful, yet uplifted.

While this album isn't anything groundbreaking, I do find it to be an album that is quite accessible, carrying more of the indie rock sound in the form of a higher focus on melody, while still being strongly rooted in its main genre. This is definitely a work of beauty, and while parts of it may feel quite samey, I personally believe that it is still a very strong record for what it manages to achieve. This would be an excellent starting point for those looking to jump into post rock, as the album is short and much more direct than a lot of other bands in the genre.

Best tracks: Quiet, The World Is Our ___, Happiness: We're All In It Together

Weakest tracks: none

Verdict: I've already said all I can on this album without becoming redundant, this is absolutely gorgeous and definitely a great starting point for those looking to get into post rock, being far more accessibly written than a lot of other bands of the genre.