Album: Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster - Exegesis

Band: Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster
Album: Exegesis
Label: Self Released
Year: 2012

Tracklist
01. Fractal World
02. Exegesis
03. Calligraphy
04. Valis
05. Black Iron Prison
06. Going Out Like Lights On A Switchboard
07. Sungazer
08. Wake.
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Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster hail from London, the meeting of five minds who share a love for atmospheric art-metal. Bringing together elements of post rock and progressive metal, as well as diverse influences from glitch to stoner rock, they generate a unique and mesmerizing sound. Moments of reflective serenity and complex spiralling soundscapes mix with massive riffs and crushing climaxes to take audiences on a journey where ego is irrelevant. No pushy frontman telling the audience what to think, no heaviness for the sake of it, Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster are set to mean something to the people attending their gigs. Soundscapes and crushing riffs, musical complexity and introspective shut eye dreamscapes.

A heavy type of rock, veering between prog and post-rock, Exegesis is mostly made up from long, thick atmospheric instrumental songs where every instrument is like a clear cut voice, with all members forming a choir. ‘Fractal world’ starts coyly but then marches on with staunch bravado. There’s attitude and a drummer clearly having a lot of fun while still keeping the band on a schedule.

‘Exegesis’ and ‘Black iron prison’ are two tracks with vocals. Sometimes they are clear as day, sometimes they are just a distortion in air, adding another extra layer to the prog heavy atmospheres. Both songs also feel like a journey: not only each clock 9+ minutes, but the ideas gel and flow together so well, you barely feel them (especially ‘Wake’, the psychedelic and thunderous album closer). There’s also enough tempo changes to keep it varied. ‘Sungazer’ (hey, also with vocals) suddenly leaves the guitar alone in the dark and it fends off like a violent John Woo ballet of blood and bullets.

‘Valis’ (hey, is that a Phillip K. Dick reference?) feels like watching a comet hanging out like a bad omen. The ominous atmosphere steadily grows. It explodes, contracts into a Black Hole and then explodes again. The cyclical nature never repeating but following a natural progression. ‘Calligraphy’, takes less time to explode, but it does with a furious attitude. A sky glowing blue and violet with lightning hitting a thousand unfortunate lightning rods in the distance, it’s one for those rainy nights where the sky will hide behind those moody clouds.

This is an album for people with love for heavy guitar atmospheres and rhythm sections showing up how it’s done. The pace is slow but never boring. The energy is cranked up and the atmosphere, just like the album cover, is an expansive, vast ocean of sounds that is never too technical for its good; emotion supersedes technical prowess. Fantastic album for everyone wanting a dose of heavy yet dreamy stuff.

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