BEACONS

Cloudkicker has vastly improved in compositional skills since his last few releases. When you compare this to The Discovery, it's obvious how he's changed. While the music remains a bit repetitive to the average listener, making is slightly more unaccessable, the riffing is more diverse and is no longer strictly "djent." The atmosphere, almost a Ben Sharp Trademark, is there and will most likely always be there as long as this project continues.

This album is a concept album of sorts without the lyrics. The titles were taken from a website devoted to transcriptions of cockpit/cabin recordings of plane crashes.

We are going to invert... (0:42)

The album starts off with a short 5-second guitar riff repeated with small quarter-second moments of silence in between. There's nothing much here, but it does set you up for the mysterious repetitive tone of the rest of the album.

Here, wait a minute! Damn it! (1:48)

If you happen to be familiar with Cloudkicker and have already built up the patience required to not stare at the time bar on your ipod, the start of this track will take you by surprise, causing you to jump a little. The strong and firey sound of Cloudkicker begins literally out of nowhere, truly introducing you to his style. This track manages to encompass several themes in its short run time, making it less repetitive than others.

We're goin' in. We're going down. (5:15)

This is the "Dysphoria" of Beacons. It's pretty much the main track and would be the single off the album if Cloudkicker released singles. It has a strong Celtic vibe at the beginning turning into more chaotic sounds. While the first theme is repeated a good number of times after the middle of the track, it still manages to keep me interested throughout. The post-rock ending is of course beautiful.

Oh, god. (5:41)

This track is heavy, but not as heavy as the last two tracks, classifying it almost strictly as post- rock. It's very relaxing and transforms the direction of the album into the next two tracks nicely.

I admit it now. I was scared. (2:05)

This soft post-rock track grows slowly throughout its short run time. It's a very nice harmony repeated throughout. Simple, but effective.

We were all scared. (2:30)

I consider this to be paired with the last track because of its title and continuation of a similar feeling. It can be compared to "Everything's Mirrors" because it follows a similar format and uses the rhythmic echo effects used in that track.

Push it way up! (7:17)

This track is sort of an enigma to me. While I can normally "tolerate" the repetition that Cloudkicker uses, I never guessed I would "tolerate" it to this much of an extreme. This track takes us from the quiet post-rock tracks back into the loud and heavy metal flow. The first two minutes host a variety of motifs, but at 2:01 a groove is introduced that repeats for the rest of the track. It's a very interesting groove carried out the way Cloudkicker would normally write grooves. It's 5 minutes of just that, yet it manages to capture me more than any other moment in the entire album. I've listened to it several times and never felt like changing to another track like I'd expect knowing how repetitive it is. This is something that really only Cloudkicker can do; when you introduce me to any other artist that does this I tend to get bored.

...it's just wide open field. (2:22)

This is another slow post-rock track that introduces two new styles that I haven't necessarily heard from Cloudkicker before. The chords give it an acoustic feel (though it's a clean guitar being used), and the melody played above the chords gives it a jazzy feel. Very relaxing as always.

It's bad. We're hit, man, we are hit. (6:02)

Another heavier track, though I particularly like the lighter post-rock break within it.

Amy, I love you. (7:57)

An excellent way to end the album, considered the "epic" as it is the longest track on the list.

untitled (2:17)

This serves as the epilogue of the album, and is similar to track 8 in its use of an acoustic chord feel.

Overally very enjoyable, definitely something I can listen to all the way through and never get bored despite its repetitions. While this album won't expand Cloudkicker's fanbase in terms of stylistic variation, it's still a bit more accessable than his other efforts.

9/10 > 5/5