Yes! Finally some new music! That's Ernest Hemingway on the cover of this thing. One of the biggest badasses in American literature. Seriously.
Anyway on to a little backstory about this band. Cobalt made huge waves with this album last year. The album was rated #5 on the year by Decibel. But, the band itself is very interesting. The main songwriter for the band wrote much of the album while serving active duty in the U.S. Army. He has appeared on a couple of talk shows to discuss this.
Despite all this, Cobalt plays black metal. It's a bit more of an Americanized style of black metal, with elements of Xasthur, Wolves in the Throne Room, and others. It's a very organic sound, not just hyper-blasting drums and riffs. There are some definite post-rock moments and some progressive structures included as well. The band probably sounds closest to Nachtmystium, without some of the psychedelic meanderings.
The second track gets off to a very slow start, but is quite good when it gets going. Many of the rest of the songs are slower, riff-driven, sludgy songs with raspy vocals. There is a hidden track behind several 10-second tracks of silence. I'm not totally sure why bands continue to do this, but oh well.
This is an interesting, complex album. It may take a few listens to fully absorb the album, but I like what I am hearing so far.
I've never heard of this before. I'm listening to the title track on Youtube right now, and it's really great. I will definitely pick this one up.
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