Us veteran outfit release their fourth full-length outfit a successor to Where Owls Know My Name
Terrestria IV: Work is the track where they tie it all together. The final riff brings it home, all the ideas, the jazzy moments, the progressive elements, and the technical death metal performed with musical prowess and dexterity.
What starts a review with the last track? sometimes it’s better to look back and you understand the whole concept better. The Work is not easy to listen to as it is a piece of art that needs to be viewed as a whole. The work is conceptual in nature, a cinematic offering that uses reprises and various repetitive elements to tell an unidentified almost introspective tale.
All the textures are here, the keyboards, the excellent percussion the Avant-Garde to the progressive nature of their music. Dreaming Black Clockwork is a highlight of sonic power and complexity, whilst Episode offers the duality with some stand-out softened saxophone. The wait is a quiet moment, almost a pause before the journey continues. Whilst the Tower is the main theme with softer moments and Maybe One Day takes this accessible element to its zenith with its uplifting dynamics almost Pink Floydian in depth.
The Work is still crushing heavy however More? Brings the mayhem with aggression, blast beats, and the harsh vocal work of Jake Dieffenbach.
The Work is a tough rewarding album, multifaceted, and able to seamlessly combine the progressive with the aggressive. Peaceful, yet unsettling, tangible yet ethereal, the closer you get to grasping it the further it moves away. The Work demands more than a casual listen, an evocative and evolving album.
Rivers of Nihil: Facebook
Release Year: 2021
Label: Metal Blade Records
Category: Album
Country: USA
Reviewed by Sparky
