@jpnicolai It's just the 6th day of the month, so the list is short:
#TheOcean: Solaris
#IfTheseTreesCouldTalk: The Hidden Hand
#WaysToTheGrave: Voyager
#if-these-trees-could-talk — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #if-these-trees-could-talk, aggregated by home.social.
-
-
If These Trees Could Talk – The Hidden Hand Review By KilljoyIf These Trees Could Talk strikes me as a mildly ironic name for an instrumental group. But, then again, post-rock has the potential to be one of the most expressive musical genres when done correctly. This grove in Akron, Ohio, has been mostly silent for the last ten years since 2016’s The Bones of a Dying World, aside from a lone single in 2024. This probably explains why, despite their popularity, I was unfamiliar with If These Trees Could Talk until now, as I only developed a fondness for post-rock a few years ago. The Hidden Hand marks their second full-length with Metal Blade Records and fourth overall. How fruitful has the last decade been?
By and large, The Hidden Hand will not shock anyone with an affinity for post-rock of the instrumental persuasion. It is primarily constructed using crystalline notes and reverb-drenched chords, fluctuating between light and dark in a manner akin to pg.lost. Like We Lost the Sea, If These Trees Could Talk summon vivid soundscapes that encompass a wide variety of emotions and moods. Though this isn’t a huge sonic departure from their prior work, there are a few minor twists. The Hidden Hand sporadically borrows smidgens of bulky guitar tone from Russian Circles and Pelican, and there is even an unexpected cover of Aphex Twin’s “Flim” at the tail end of the album.
If These Trees Could Talk endeavors to wring the most from handfuls of simple tunes. This approach works well in some instances. The most notable of these is “Blurry Creatures,” featuring a recurring choral chant around which the multi-guitar lines coil like ivy on a trellis. “Moon Machine” is less successful as it stretches two alternating passages across 8 minutes, feeling fatiguing and formulaic. I enjoy The Hidden Hand more when the focus is on spinning poignant melodies (“Sea of Glass,” “Silence Between Mountains, Pts. 1 and 2”), but this does not happen as much as on former records. Instead, a heavier reliance on reverb at times feels antithetical to the desired atmosphere (“Moon Machine,” “Metanoia,” “Silence Between Mountains, Pt. 2”). Furthermore, the final track “Endlessly Connected” begins with soft, interwoven guitar strands that never get the chance to grow into something substantial.
The Hidden Hand is not composed in a way that appears to have considered the whole. Compared with the fluidity of prior albums, it’s more of a motley collection of tracks. This isn’t a bad thing in and of itself, but less overall synergy means less staying power in this case. “Metanoia” and “Flim” stick out in particular. The former leans into perky prog rock, and the latter, while a faithful cover, would have fit better in a setting such as Stardew Valley. Additionally, the percussion seems to have lost much of the free-flowing flair that helped foster the unity of The Bones of a Dying World. In The Hidden Hand, it mainly consists of standard rock beats dressed with syncopation, resulting in a more generic feeling across the board.
Ultimately, The Hidden Hand is not as convincing a comeback as I would have hoped. For whatever reason, some of the magic has disappeared in the last ten years. Given that this was my first experience with If These Trees Could Talk, I can say with certainty that this is not because of pent-up or unrealistic expectations. Their prior magnificence can still be heard in the likes of “Silence Between Mountains, Pt. 2” and “Blurry Creatures,” but, even so, The Hidden Hand likely won’t change anyone’s mind about whether they like instrumental-only music. While for me, The Hidden Hand isn’t worth the opportunity cost when craving post-rock, I’m grateful to have been introduced to The Bones of a Dying World, and I look forward to spending more time with that one.
Rating: 2.5/5.0
#25 #2026 #AmericanMetal #AphexTwin #IfTheseTreesCouldTalk #InstrumentalMetal #Jul26 #MetalBladeRecords #Pelican #pgLost #PostRock #PostMetal #Review #Reviews #RussianCircles #TheHiddenHand #WeLostTheSea
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: Metal Blade Records
Websites: ifthesetreescouldtalk.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/treescouldtalk
Releases Worldwide: July 10th, 2026 -
Million Moons – I May Be Some Time Review
By Iceberg
“I am just going outside and may be some time.” These were Lawrence Oates’ last words as he walked into the wild of Antarctica, crippled by frostbite and looking, purportedly, to alleviate his doomed team of the burden of his body. I May Be Some Time, the sophomore album from U.K. trio Million Moons tells the tale of the Terra Nova polar expedition through synth-heavy instrumental post-metal. Relating a story in the absence of lyrics brings with it its own difficulties, but the band had success before; 2022’s A Gap In The Clouds dealt with the chronic progression of dementia, and similarly was a wordless endeavor. Can Million Moons capture the indomitable courage and harrowing despair of the fated explorers on I May Be Some Time, or will this album ultimately perish in the icy wilderness?
Post-metal is more of a qualifier than a genre, truth be told, but Million Moons do their best to make a sound of their own. While opener “Terra Nova” may trick the listener into thinking the band employs a crystalline, ambient approach, they quickly show they favor a brawnier, more immediate brand of post. The best comparisons here would be Caspian and If These Trees Could Talk, although there are passages of God Is An Astronaut-style EDM (“Uncharted Waters,” “Intruders In A Strange World”) and the cerebral, hemiola-laced djent of TesseracT (“Voice of the Wild”). The music oscillates between lush distant piano melodies braced against arpeggiated, heavily delayed guitars (“Terra Nova,” “Aurora”) and drum-driven passages that often triple-layer rhythms between the instruments for a sound that is at once chaotic while retaining metric rigidity (“I May Be Some Time,” “Endure, Overcome”).
Million Moons excel at atmosphere-building and the contrast of icy light with digital dark. The band aren’t content with the patient building of thick chords that usually heralds post-metal; they pepper their songs with atypical harmonic shifts (“Uncharted Waters”) and odd-time drum patterns (“Intruders In A Strange World” “Endure, Overcome”). One’s tolerance for rave-style EDM and djentistry will mark how much enjoyment can be derived from I May Be Some Time; the band makes these sounds a cornerstone of the album. The drums are particularly intricate, lending a different rhythmic shape to each song, but run a little too complex against the rest of the instruments (“Terra Nova,” “Voice of the Wild”). Even with a modest DR 6, the music is undeniably pretty, with all the instruments occupying their own detailed space. Of note is that I May Be Some Time clocks in at a lithe 36 minutes; a veritable EP in the world of post-metal, one of the few genres where too little material may be a red flag.
I May Be Some Time often leaves the impression of excellent musical material that’s missing some time in development. Longer tracks do a good job of moving from section to section, careful not to overstay their welcome, but the melodic material never reaches payoff level, and the dynamics never really explode (“Uncharted Waters,” “I May Be Some Time”). Shorter tracks are more aggressive—read EDM/djent—filled with hooky grooves and frantic energy, but I miss development sections, secondary melodies, or extended guitar leads in their clipped runtimes (“Voice of the Wild,” “Intruders In A Strange Land”). But one-two punch “Endure, Overcome” and “Aurora” show what Million Moons can do when everything clicks into place. The former launches into slick polyrhythms and offbeat snare hits before transitioning into a triumphant major section, the eponymous “overcome.” And “Aurora,” a magnificent example of the instrumental long form, shows a patience in its development previously unseen on the record, twisting and climbing into a gorgeous, heartbreaking bi-chordal progression illustrating the final moments of the story’s protagonists.
As the album fades away, I’m left with an impression of what Million Moons are capable of over a pair of songs, but not an entire record. Listening back to A Gap In The Clouds it’s clear the band chose a more truncated and aggressive direction for this record, and that paid in both dividends and losses. I May Be Some Time makes for an enlightening distraction to the growls and shrieks of everyday metal life, and contains some real kernels of possibility for the young band. The bedeviled lot of you who are fans of instrumental metal should give this band a fair shake, and those of you who aren’t should check it out anyway, and expand your horizons past the Southern Seas and into the frozen unknown.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s
Label: Ripcord Records | Bandcamp
Websites: facebook.com | Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: July 5, 2024#2024 #30 #Caspian #Djent #GodIsAnAstronaut #IMayBeSomeTime #IfTheseTreesCouldTalk #InstrumentalMetal #Jul24 #MillionMoons #PostMetal #Review #Reviews #RipcordRecords #TesseracT #UKMetal
-
If These Trees Could Talk - Red Forest
-
-
-
If These Trees Could Talk - Solstice
https://ifthesetreescouldtalk.bandcamp.com/track/solstice
Issu de l'album The Bones Of A Dying World, sorti en 2016.
#IfTheseTreesCouldTalk #TheBonesOfADyingWorld
#PostRock #Instrumental #PostMetal #Musique