For my own amusement, I like to play a guessing game. Can I tell the genre of an album, the sound of a band, especially one I’m not familiar with, just by looking at the album cover? More often than not, I can. But every now and then I am confronted with a real challenge, and there are also instances where I must admit to having no bloody clue. Shrine’s new EP Ghost Notes definitely presents as somewhat of a challenge within the parameters of my game. While I am familiar with other bands the band members are involved in, such as Akercocke and Voices, this is my first encounter with Shrines. I’m not sure what to expect. What kind of music could be hiding behind four perfectly crafted stone pillars rising from what looks like rivers of steaming hot lava amidst a storm? There is no safe guess here. Something progressive maybe? Let’s find out.

After listening to Ghost Notes multiple times, and for the sake of simplification, I’d put the EP’s genre as somewhere between post rock and post punk. The release’s four tracks, each one with a playtime of a bit over four minutes, are well composed, melodious, instantly engaging pieces of music with plenty of hooks. There are many elements to catch the listeners’ ears, for example the clean vocals and the guitar work, but the drumming is especially worthy of attention. Gripping rhythms, speed and blast beats tell you instantly that the drummer’s primary field of interest and activity aren’t post rock or post punk, but rather metal, and this makes for a refreshingly unconventional listening.

Each of the EP’s four tracks has a slightly different, but equally energetic character, with the closing number White Light deviating the farthest from the frame set up by the three previous tracks. Ghost Notes therefore closes on a more vulnerable and more reflective note than it began.

The stand-out track of the EP for me is Relics. It’s just impossible to resist this combination of heavy riffage, melody, melancholic vocal performance and blast beats. The band also produced a video for this song, showing extensive preparation for a launch into space. Which makes me rethink the cover. Maybe it isn’t depicting rivers of lava but terraforming on Mars? Shrines as a project, in any case, seem to be off to new horizons.

(7.5/10 Slavica)

https://www.facebook.com/shrinesofficial

https://apocalypticwitchcraft.bandcamp.com/album/ghost-notes