Come on ye boys in green!
Artiste: God is an Astronaut
Nationality: Irish
Album: Age of the fifth sun
Year: 2010
Label: Revive
Genre: Post rock/Instrumental rock
Tracks:
Worlds in collision
In the distance fading
Lost kingdom
Golden sky
Dark rift
Parallel highway
Shining through
Age of the fifth sun
Paradise remains
Chronological position: Fifth album
Familiarity: Zero
Interesting factoid:
Initial impression:
Best track(s): In the distance fading, Golden sky, Dark rift, Age of the fifth sun, Paradise remains
Worst track(s): Nothing
Comments: I've only listened to one other Irish instrumental post-rock band, and that's ASIWYFA, reviewed here as I think the very first in this series. I was very impressed with that album, and am looking forward to their new one. GIAA seem to follow the same sort of lines with their music, alternating from ambient to fast hard rock and throwing in other influences along the way. There's certainly a lot of passion in this music, and it's great to listen to.
Great piano work and some fine growling guitar that can just as easily cut back into a nice introspective strum or pick, as in
In the distance fading, whereas there's a real sense of dark ambience to the suitably-named
Dark rift, like something out of a science-fiction movie. The title track kind of brings it back to this sort of idea, slow squealing guitar and swirling synth before it breaks into a real almost metal track, just showing how diverse these guys can be, and why I'm proud they're Irish!
Overall impression: Like this a lot, will have to hear more.
Intention: Let's go check out their previous four albums then, shall we?