Barrens brings five years of work to a close.
Signed to Pelagic Records, Johan G. Winther (guitar/keyboards), Markku Hildén (drums), and Kenta Jansson (bass/keyboards) – who met through the Scraps of Tape project – are finally releasing their second album, Corpse Lights.
Memory Eraser opens the doors to a world that is already quite dissonant but also melancholic, allowing a few melodies to haunt the place before becoming heavier with the arrival of The Derelict, which also brings drums into the mix. The sound progresses slowly until a catchy groove takes hold of the riffs, allowing the guitars to soar and calm the flow, but we sense that the tranquility is only temporary, and that the rhythm will become heavier again, finally joining Sorrowed, where we discover more playful Post-Punk influences. Saturation remains present, returning to an almost unusual purity at times before almost imperceptibly setting off again in this long, twirling tornado that captivates us but eventually gives way to the much calmer Periastron. Only a few notes linger for the introduction, but they are joined by airy and disturbing saturation to darken the composition a little before leading us to the short Apastron with its ethereal approach that allows us to breathe in a minimalist atmosphere. No Light suddenly bursts into flames, effortlessly carrying us away in its imposing wave that continues to intensify and enrich itself with new tones until the moment when the flame diminishes, flickers, and then sinks into silence before Collapsar follows suit, initially with a lively touch. The tone lasts long enough, then explodes suddenly while maintaining its mood, runs out of steam, and starts again with dissonant synthesizers that color the riffs for good before Remnants returns to the sweetness that lulls us, creating a real contrast between the tracks. The track is fairly short, and despite a few hazy passages, it remains comforting, while A Nothing Expands is much more violent from the outset, thanks in particular to the regular percussion, then with this tangle of ghostly harmonics before letting the trio offer us a few soaring echoes to close the album.
If you listen to it in one go, Corpse Lights sounds like a single track, punctuated by waves of heaviness, ethereal passages, but above all an incredibly natural progression. Congratulations, Barrens!
90/100
