YOUR REWARD...A BULLET

3.5 stars

From Portugal comes this young band that made what sounds to me like a mature and coherent album. While they have the undeniable post-rock characteristics as appearing in tracks like Polaris, where the long, emotional riffs take the listener away with sounds that might recall bands like EITS, they also show a side where they rock out (even within those same tracks) and show a dynamic and heavy aspect of the band. In Yehudi Lights, they show how the combination of these two sides works very well together, forging a sound that might remind you of Caspian's direct approach to post-rock, which is usually made up of shorter than usual tracks, which arrive to the climax rather rapidly; though there is also some of the slower and more ponderous side here as well (towards the middle-end of the track) which resumes its pace quickly. In Frienemies they introduce a metal sound (which also shows up in Ghost Canyon II), which sits very well with the music, as the harsh and heavy side emphasizes even better the emotional aspect of the music and melody. The intricacy of this track, and its creativeness shows that the band has a lot to offer and I believe that in the future albums they will unleash and fulfill more of that potential and serve us with more complex, heavy and varied sounding music. This is a very promising start. The flow from one track to the following is very well done, whether there is connection between them or not; the change of pace and mood is as natural as can be and I think they've done a good job with the track order. Lastly, their sound is such that it engulfs me the listener with a wall of sound, but is not too loud to appreciate; it is rich sounding, full and satisfying.

Overall, I find their style to be great and right for my taste. The energy they convey, mixed with the great post-rock climaxes is done very well, in a mostly succinct and shorter than typical way (for post- rock standards). This is their first full-length after two EP's. They have set quite high a standard with this release. If they keep up to this, providing this level of quality in their future releases, then I think they'll do very well. I'm looking forward to their next release based on the strength of this one. A very well done album, great to listen to and one I will definitely come back to listen to.