WE LOST THE SEA

After the lost of his vocalist, the band would choose the instrumental way. And is massive personal, intimate and sincere with this event. The album remains all of the moments of a change in the soul of the band, remembering to his frontman.

Departure Songs is briliant, non for people who's expecting more of the classic We Lost The Sea, I mean, It's a tribute, a ode, a long and peacefull piece of art.

-Gallant Gentleman is pure gold for a first song. So personal, te begining of what is coming. Slow, with that guitar intro and the coral voices made it so deeply beutiful.

-Bogatiry is my favorite song of this album. Is powerfull and remains me to this classic prog song with a rythm in 'crescendo'. A new classic for the band.

-The Last Dive of Daid Schawn is so intense, but kind of melancholy with a little bit of frenetic and obscure guitars.

-Challenger Part 1 - Flight is the peak of the album, with a strong and powerfull rythm. It seems like a trip when they have to restructure their minds and souls.

-Challenger Part 1 - A Swan Song is, for me, the parting for Chris Torpy. Without a doubt is one of the one of the most beautiful songs of Post-Metal/Rock. A great closing for this band.

4.5/5 Pure gold, but not the best of all time of the genre.

Triumph & Disaster is a concept album telling the story of the collapse of the planet Earth as recounted through the experiences of a mother and her son on their last day on Earth. The story is all illustrated through instrumental tracks, some of them quite lengthy. The music is loud, harsh and dark. The album is made up of 7 tracks and has a run-time of over 64 minutes.

The music comes on full force at the beginning with a loud and guitar heavy riff in the 15 minute track "Towers" and continues that way until the 4 minute mark, at which point it suddenly softens and the piano starts to shine through as the guitars drone and sparkle along. After 6 minutes, a more deliberate beat comes in as music gets a bit more rhythmic, but follows the same theme. After a minute, this all comes crashing down as a desending drone blows everything away, leaving only the piano, a slow, but constant beat and a soft atmospheric drone and occasional guitar effects wailing in the distance. Around 10 minutes, the music builds, encouraged by a fast ascending/descending guitar riff, a steady beat and a heavy, fuzzy guitar pushing it forward. This culminates in a sudden burst of . . . silence, a pause, tapping percussion . . . and then a sudden explosion of the slow, sludgier return to the main theme, underlaid by a moaning synth.

"A Beautiful Collapse" (7:34) portrays the end of everything, the beauty that the people of the Earth have ignored gets blown away by the wind and violence of the weather and of our ignorance. The music starts soft and thoughtful, but soon, a grinding drone starts to increase in the background. The simple guitar line that was established starts getting hit with drums and then a sudden onslaught of the heavy guitars with the synths holding it all together. It's hard and heavy again, but with an undertone of sorrow and regret. The music continues to build and finally ends on a start/stop pattern that seems like natures final statement to the entire destruction, a disaster that to nature, will only signify as the move towards a rebirth. "Dust" (4:00) represents humanity living in regret with only memories and dreams. The music is pensive and nostalgic, the slow guitar and sparse piano notes give a feeling of loss. But people breathe in the dust and try to move on. The trumpet is playing in the background conjuring a feeling like heartbreak for experiences lost, and the guitar plays while a droning, dark wind ebbs and flows around it all. It sounds sparse and regretful.

"Parting Ways" (12:43) has a very noticeable positivity to it in the bright guitar strumming and a rhythm that is a little more upbeat. The track is portraying the hope that humanity feels that they are moving on and have a new future to look forward to. Everyone realizes that they all had faith in the wrong things and now that they understand, they hope for change by letting go of the past and parting ways with old habits. But is it too late? The music stays with a positive tone as it moves on and this time the development seems to represent the willpower to move forward. "Distant Shores" (4:23) is a nice and melodic track, sort of like an interlude, thoughtful and lovely. It represents a boat floating on a lake, another object of hope because no one knows why its there or what it's purpose is. The organ that supports the guitar later makes it almost sound hymn-like. A slow drum beat soon joins in later. These last two track are a lot less like the typical post metal sound and seem more atmospheric and melodic.

"The Last Sun" (14:40) has the full volume of the band coming back with a vengeance, representing the Earth's final retaliation. This time humanity knows it is doomed and that the forces of nature can't have rebirth without a total purge. As is noted on the band's Bandcamp page, "We pushed it too far and it pushed back". Humanity messed with its environment and there is no going back or second chance. Around 3 minutes, the heaviness breaks down, there is mostly silence and then a lone guitar comes in softly with echoing notes. There is a sense of sadness, yet a beauty to it all. Mother and child have to say their last goodbyes but move on knowing that it's the only way for things to get better. By the 7 minute mark, the music has developed a bit, and a marching style rhythm accompanies two guitars playing contrasting variations of the theme. One guitar stays in staccato style while the other is more sustained through fast repetitive strumming. The music continues to build slowly pushing through ascending chords. "Mother's Hymn" (5:42) starts off with a pensive vocal melody sung by guest Louise Nutting along with simple piano accompaniment with soft clapping percussion. The music is surprisingly beautiful with amazing vocals and a building instrumental background. At 3 minutes, a more solid background comes in, the trumpet returns to strengthen the melodic ending, which sounds more triumphant than sorrowful even as she sings "Are we really too late?", but then the music quiets as she sings the final words, that express emotion, regret and pain for having to come to a final realization that the end is here. It's quite an effective ending.

This album does a very nice job of portraying its story and message, and the ending is very powerful and emotional. The music can be loud, but it can also be very expressive and dynamic. The band utilizes some of the post-metal/rock formulas, but not exclusively as they also go beyond the formulaic as needed, also portraying hope along with regret and loss. The album is aptly named and the music definitely portrays both triumph and disaster effectively. While the opening track is quite long , the time is well used, but I did notice that later, "The Last Sun" almost seems to drag on a little bit too long, expanding the build of the music over way too much time. However, this is not always the case, and the album moves along quite well in most other sections. It would have been nice to have a bit more originality in there, but the music is mostly quite effective in telling the story. The addition of the trumpet really adds to the few sections where it appears, and I would have liked to have heard it used a little more. And that last punch of the final track and the telling lyrics and vocals pretty much sums up the bittersweet feelings of how destruction brings about new hope in an overall grand scheme of things. This all ends up with a strong 4 star rating.

"A Gallant Gentleman" sounds so beautiful to start with that picked guitar that sort of echoes. Just gorgeous as other relaxed sounds join in before 3 minutes. Drums and a fuller sound after 3 minutes as it turns somewhat powerful. Vocal melodies as it settles back down before 5 minutes. Again just a beautiful sound here. Such a great way to open the album. "Bogatyri!" opens with relaxed guitar melodies then bass and a beat join in before 2 minutes. It starts to build slightly after 4minutes. This continues as the guitar starts to amp it up. Man this is good! It's fairly heavy late but no explosion of sound. Post-Rock styled guitars end it. Another fantastic track! "The Last Dive Of David Shaw" opens with faint water sounds and the obvious sounds of a scuba diver with that breathing. Distant spoken words here too then some atmosphere 2 minutes in along with static before picked guitar takes over before 2 1/2 minutes. Another guitar arrives and a light beat before 3 minutes. Mellow is the word but it starts to build as it turns louder before 4 1/2 minutes. Suddenly minute later it calms right down to silence only then pulses arrive just before 6 minutes along with atmosphere and guitar. It starts to turn fuller 8 minutes in. Then even louder at 9 1/2 minutes, quite powerful in fact before settling back down just before 14 minutes. Piano eventually takes over to end it.

"Challenger Part 1-Flight" is the almost 24 minute epic track on here. Opening with an interview with a man who discusses the relation of dreams to going to outer space. I like how when he finishes it up some 5 1/2 minutes in the atmosphere has turned increasingly louder to almost not hearing him. A calm follows with picked guitar. It kicks in just before 9 1/2 minutes. So good! A definite highlight for me and this continues until it settles back just before 12 minutes. The guitar is crying out at 12 1/2 minutes. It then calms right down before 14 1/2 minutes. Synth sounds follow then guitar before we get the audio for the countdown 16 1/2 minutes in. An intense determined sound here as the audio continues. Kicking butt here then it kicks in even harder after 18 minutes. It starts to wind down after 21 1/2 minutes as people express their disbelief at what has just happened. Lots of confusion as a lady says "They were here and now they're gone".

This blends into "Challenger Part 2-A Swan Song" as distant atmosphere continues as picked guitar arrives and starts to echo sadly. Strummed guitar and a beat join in after 3 minutes. It slowly starts to build until kicking in with power at 5 1/2 minutes. Great sound! It kicks in even harder around 6 1/2 minutes before settling back as we hear the speech from Ronald Reagan as he relates so wonderfully the story of Sir Francis Drake some 400 years earlier. Nice.

If not for length of "The last Dive Of David Shaw" I would be giving this 5 stars for sure. I found that track to have prolonged passages that could have easily been shortened making it much better to my ears. Just my opinion. Love this album though, one of my all time favourite Post-Rock records without a doubt.

It is a concept album and, as the band says, it is "inspired by failed, yet epic and honourable journeys or events throughout history where people have done extraordinary things for the greater good of those around them, and the progress of the human race itself. This is a celebration and a tribute. Each song has it's own story and is a soundtrack to that story". The four stories "talk" about a man who sacrificed himself for the salvation of his friends, three brave men who did the same to prevent a huge catastrophe (the Chernobyl disaster), a diver who broke the limits to recover the body of a fellow dead diver, but eventually overestimated his abilities and the well known Challenger disaster. The seed that gave birth to this collection of stories was the death of bandmate Chris Torpy two years before and that is evident throughout every composition. Actually not his death, but the band's overcoming of that. Every track is full of emotion, even if not a single word is sang. There are some recorded speeches by influential men though.

The music can certainly be described as post-rock. I personally am not a huge fan of the sub-genre although the post-rock aficionados will feel like home. As you can see, there are lengthy compositions that build up perfectly to a climax (or several climaxes for that matter). The tracks I like the most are the opener and the centrepiece, but all of them are equally moving and emotional. What amazes me is that after all these years of music writing some people in Australia managed to write original music. There is still hope!

There are albums that make you feel and there are albums that make you think. And then there is Departure Songs that does both. It throws the pseudo-inspirational efforts you forget after the first listen (if you can make it that far) in the gutter. This is a work of art of the highest calibre, phenomenal by today's standards, something that you will remember for a long, long time. I cannot stretch it enough. You have to listen to this album. You can do it for free on the band's bandcamp page (where you can also find a lot of interesting background information and buy this masterpiece) or on youtube.