As High As The Highest Heavens And From The Center To The Circumference Of The Earth (True Widow)

Chronique

Existing in a murky haze somewhere between drone and the slacker rock, True Widow weave together heaviness and harmony on their sophomore album, As High as the Highest Heavens and From the Center to the Circumference of the Earth. With a guitar sound that’s not so much detuned as it is shuddering, the band explores the vast and lonely depths of the sonic spectrum. Preventing the album from slipping into the territory of glacial doom, however, are the vocals. Drenched in reverb, the male/female harmonies wrap the listener up like a down comforter, completely enveloping everything they touch while providing a drifting feeling that keeps the trudging pace of the album from ever feeling like it’s about to stall out. The combination creates an odd kind of magic that at times feels as if you’re listening to an album of Earth covering Pavement, with songs like “Skull Eyes” mixing the former's sense of spaciousness and tempo with the latter's penchant for melodies, and which feel like they’re barely held together, threatening to come apart at the seams at the slightest jostling, but never actually doing so. With its slow, even pacing and spaciousness, As High as the Highest Heavens and From the Center to the Circumference of the Earth is a fantastically understated piece of headphones-ready post-rock goodness that will draw you into its depths with deceptively simple arrangements before trapping you in its sludgy melodies, making for a fantastic follow-up from this promising band.
© Gregory Heaney /TiVo