AWmusic

Nashville’s The Ascent of Everest were like a hidden gem until the re-release of their debut, How Lonely Sits the City under Shelsmusic. While using elements obvious of post-rock fundamentals, the album still manages to be intriguing and engaging. Dark in demeanor with influences of metal and classical, How Lonely Sits the City pulls you in, messes with your emotions, and boots you out without your consent.

And yes, surely there are skeptics out there who don’t believe that an album that uses the same regimen as the previous from that whatchumacallit band can’t really be that good. It was missed among the huge wave of popularized and adored post-rock records of Yndi Halda, Caspian, This Will Destroy You, and more, for lack of being under a label. But now it is different–the re-release has definitely gotten a lot of attention from critics, and now the only hope is to see The Ascent of Everest ascend into the industry (was that corny?).

This is an excellent album of five tracks, which might seem like a little, but to those familiar with post-rock, it means one track probably equals two or three standard songs. Most of the tracks are long; only one album is less than 10 minutes. The album starts off with “Alas! Alas! The Breath of Life” (breaths of life doesn’t exactly sound like something to be mourning about, but perhaps that is just me and my optimistic nature), a slow-paced mellow tune defined by sweet melodies of clean guitar and strings. It follows a quiet-loud crescendo, perhaps marking it as the most generic post-rock track of the album. There are occasional vocals to be heard on the album, but in “Alas!” it is more part of the instrumentation than the focus.

“As the City Burned, We Trembled as We Saw the Makings of its Undoings in Our Own Hearts” (sounds like a Red Sparowes title) follows a similar style with a more darker, metal sound to it. It’s the shortest track in the entire album, but engages the listener with a brooding and heavy tone.

“Molotov” takes on a different tone, beginning with soft playing of the piano, with the instrumentation slowly building with percussions, strings, and synths. It has a sort of unsettling manner to it, and that is the very thing that makes it so enticing. It takes on the quiet-loud dynamic in the same vein but in a different way, almost changing the tonality of the track entirely by the end of it. This is the track that holds the album together, even having the potential to steal the show and dampening the rest of the tracks.

“A Threnody (For the Victims of November Second)” features a voice-over of Mario Cuomo’s 1984 keynote speech. I’m not exactly sure what the true significance of November 2nd is in context to this song, but I’m guessing it has to do with Bush’s re-election in 2004 (anybody else know?). The voice-over definitely enhances the track, but the riff is excellent and so appropriate to the title. Musically it is consistent with the rest of the album, and the speeding down of the speech makes it sound all the more somber.

“If I Could Move Mountains (i) Majesty and Awe (ii)” end the album of appropriately, with a more uplifting, enlightening sort of tone. Like the rest of the album, it does use the same elements (quiet-loud, same instrumentation, etc.), but it has a more majestic sound to it, very reminiscent of that Explosions we all love.

On the whole, the album is really great. It starts off with a familiarity we’re all used to, shows an impressive amount of originality, and then brings us back to that familiarity again, but this time with a sweeter ending. The Ascent of Everest has proven with this record that they are capable of various sounds, and thus, capable of captivating many different emotions in their listeners. If you really enjoyed Yndi Halda’s Enjoy Eternal Bliss (especially for the strings) and are fans of Explosions in the Sky and even the more metal of post-rock like Red Sparowes and GY!BE, you won’t be disappointed with this album. It’s an impressive debut. I’m definitely looking forward to hearing more of them in the future.

MP3s:
The Ascent of Everest – As the City Burned, We Trembled as We Saw the Makings of its Undoings in Our Own Hearts

The Ascent of Everest – Molotov

Tags: album