Glories and Their Journey Through The Soundscapes.
Glories – Birmingham, Alabama, USA.
One unambiguous truth of the digital age is that the reach of music and its availability has grown exponentially. This is something noticeable in countless genres but something I have personally and gladly seen in the world of Instrumental music, with Post-Rock and its heavier cousin Post-Metal standing particularly tall.
This is where Glories come in, the band have been in the game of creating beautiful imagery via ambient music since April 2013 and have since released three EPs of music that is both incredibly hard to criticise and truly capable of conjuring said beautiful imagery for days upon end.
\\There Is No Stillness//
With the opening notes of ‘Bravo Sierra’ the Post-Rock tendency to pick either the path of the sombre or that of the steadily upbeat is chosen with a short but perfect build-up to the far more weighty end of the genre, with then layered rhythms and a whirling crescendo lead riff that leaves you with nothing but a smile on your face.
Glories opt for a far more cohesive sound than many of their contemporaries, taking the layers of Post-Rock but giving them much more of an intense consistent backing and foundation.
If the first part of track showed a triumphant stride over golden hills in the company of friends then the more dulcet but still tuneful beautiful latter portion is the recollection and rest.
‘Telescopes’ carries an almost ominous variation in tone from the “cheerful” feeling of ‘Bravo Sierra’ but still carries a sort of inspiring sonic inspiration and determination. I have been lucky enough to live in the countryside and in more rural cities in towns most of my life and I can see myself taking a walk deep in thought through sun-lit fields with ‘Telescopes’ as my soundtrack… or something like that.
‘Telescopes’ is a tough act to follow and it is at this stage on the record that you begin to truly see Glories for what they are. The band could easily sit alongside the stalwarts of the genre Godspeed You! Black Emperor with ease and could easily draw a crowd at any Progressive music event yet still objectively speaking don’t necessarily break an tremendous new ground.
And that, thats ok – but why? Well, Glories are sonically impressive, the production is fitting and aesthetic is nigh-on perfect. They are a band that are doing what they are doing very well and seemingly need no pointers. This is particularly the case with ‘Telescopes’.
With the middle of the EP you have ‘A Hint Of The Sea’ which at least in my opinion stands as very typical of the genre but nonetheless impressive. The guitar tones in particular elude a hidden heaviness the band tease not for the first or last time, with an applicability that fans of Post-Hardcore, Post-Metal or other Progressive genre variations would enjoy.
‘Dead Weight’ follows a similar pattern with layered and less cumbersome build-ups acting as the norm before the composition as a whole cannot hold itself from shedding its skin and soaring. This may well sound very cliche and perhaps a little pretentious but the beauty of this genre is its ability to conjure such images and prose and it, as well as I, will not apologise.
There Is No Stillness takes its contemplative tone along a more sombre road progressively from track to track and with this final track, ‘As Walls Keep Shifting’, it reaches its climax.
Majoritively, music is known for its lyrical talent either born from emotion or in its ability to invoke such. With instrumental music however as much as it can be hard from both sides of the speaker to illustrate a point or feeling, it is certainly doable and with Post-Rock and especially Glories, it really is achieved tenfold.
Find the band below:
- For updates, head to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
- The band’s music can be found on bandcamp, iTunes, Spotify and their Youtube Channel.
#StayFresh
