The Grasshopper Lies Heavy is the latest edition to the Crowquill Records family, one which is steadily growing in quality, especially with last year’s stellar EP from Sisters of….
This new instrumental trio traverses some similar terrain as Sisters of…, but with a decidedly more brooding and paced approach.
Every Man for Himself and God Against All is the first full-length from the Texan band after a slew of EPs. The band has meshed a world of different influences like Russian Circles and Old Man Gloom into one record that, granted, hasn’t reinvented the wheel but feels whole and full of vigour.
Broken into five parts, each song has its own traits, but crucially, they are all woven together into one seamless piece of work that needs to be presented as one suite of music to be fully appreciated. This brings on an album journey that’s rich in peaks and troughs.
‘Part I’ kicks with swirling, jarring riffs that are reminiscent of Alaskan while ‘Part II’ is a meandering and hypnotic calm before the next storm. ‘Part III’ meanwhile is a seven minute noisy interlude.
This up and down approach could almost damage the flow of the record, sounding patched together but this is anything but the case on Every Man for Himself and God Against All, sounding very natural and fluid.
One thing is certain on this album and that is that The Grasshopper… become more and more dynamic with each passing note, adding in new little intricacies to each this song. This is more than clear on the finals part of IV and V. The former kicks in with the album’s meatiest sludge riffs before blossoming to more melodic terrain while the latter is infected with a massive spacey vibe laden with distorted leads guitars that play us out into the stars.
Post metal is a broad brushstroke to describe the sounds of The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, but the band certainly slots into the vast sonic space with fans of Pelican or even Cloudkicker likely to find something here that they can sink their teeth into.
