We are now in a rather splendid little run of bands that specialise in atmospheric and emotive metal. Our last entry, Solstafir, hail from the icy North but pepper their sound with arid Americana. Pallbearer in juxtaposition come from the desert climbs of Little Rock, Arkansas but have a remarkably European sensibility to their music. This is delicate and tender doom. All the malevolence and malice have been stripped away, leaving a fragile and vulnerable sound is full of pathos and regret.

This is yet another astonishing album in a long run of astonishing albums. It’s slow, glacially slow but that is indeed its beauty. Songs gestate and develop before your very ears. It is a sparse and brooding album that uses silent as a fifth member of the band. The bits that exists between the notes are the most important bits in this album. It uses that absence of noise to exonerate and escalate the note that do exist.

Its heaviness exists in its emotional weight. It is an album that stays with you long after you have listened to it, continually triggering thoughts, regrets and comprehension. An outstanding piece of work that shows once again that less is very much more and it’s what you don’t say and don’t do and don’t play that has the biggest impact.

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