Two years ago, the Seattle hardcore trio City Of Industry really impressed me with their album False Flowers. On that record, City Of Industry drew on lots of different sounds — pianos, folky acoustic guitars, bursts of noise-rock sludge — to make something truly expressive. Today, the band might’ve outdone themselves. They’ve just released the new album Spiritual West, which pushes all the ideas from False Flowers even further.
Spiritual West plays out as a whole sonic tapestry, with eerie synth-drones and ghostly samples helping the transitions from one deliriously intense track to the next. Parts of the album take clear influence from screamo or metal, but I’m not sure the end result belongs to any particular scene or genre. In the Bandcamp description, frontman John Caraveo says that City Of Industry recorded Spiritual West after the deaths of some people close to him, and you can definitely hear the album as one person’s attempt to grapple with all-consuming darkness.
City Of Industry recorded Spiritual West with Mount Eerie collaborator Nich Wilbur, and Deafheaven/Gulch collaborator Jack Shirley mixed and mastered the record. I’m on my first listen right now, but it sounds awesome. Listen below.
Spiritual West is out now on No Funeral/Modern Grievance.
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