Ritual Fires of Abandonment
MINSK is a pretty decent band that is signed to Relapse and they just released their newest endeavor,
The Ritual Fires of Abandonment. The album is pretty cool, but a little off for my tastes. In a basic rundown, it sounds very tribal and interesting – but tracks are very long and don’t seem to progress that much.
With that said, I do like the album. I just think that you should go somewhere epic if you are going to play a fifteen minute track. What Minsk tends to do is start VERY slowly, build up to a middle-of-the-road delivery and slow back down before fading into the next track.
This album is definitely a good one to throw on in the background while you are doing some work at the computer. If you are typing or even trying to get some reading done, “Embers” and “Mescaline Sunrise” will keep you mellow and focused. If you want to listen to something a little heavier on the album, “White Wings” and “Ceremony Ek Stasis” tend to remind me of Mastodon – a bit.
Another point of the album that didn’t work well for me was that “Circle of Ashes” sounded almost identical to “Embers” in the way the song was arranged, but is also ten minutes shorter. I don’t know how I feel about the album, in all honesty. When I’m feeling it, I love listening to the progressions – when I’m not into it, I feel like taking a nap.
I think that my main problem would be that the album, though it may have long tracks, is really short so you don’t have enough time to see if it is something that you will like. You can definitely tell that Sanford Parker (PELICAN) had his hands in this one, because it sounds a lot like Pelican. In all honesty, though, I would rather listen to ISIS for this type of Post-Metal.
