Pelican
The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw

A flow. A continuous flow of notes that overlap each other, without any respect for one another, distortions that make post-core their reason for being, oppressive and destabilizing sludge-doom reminiscences, stoner glimpses like tears that fall, walls of sound that rise to transform into whispers, apocalyptic tension and lyrical pacification, drone-ambient atmospheres that obscure every word, every breath, every thought. And above, the sky, clearer than ever and paradoxically with stormy hues, always in tension, a coming and going of clouds appearing everywhere like in the wonderful cover. The journey.
The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw is the worthy successor of that Australasia that had so warmed the hearts of every post-core fan and formed its necessary premise. And even here there is no easy concession to vocals, but only pure instrumental music that feels like losing oneself in an infinite ocean, constantly risking drowning in the foam.
Here it is, the new album, and I am reviewing it for you in preview, almost two weeks before its release on July 12th. A dream, literally. I was among those pleasantly struck by Australasia, perhaps precisely because of this I truly couldn't imagine what kind of album the band would produce next. What could I expect, I tried, but without success. Better so, because the surprise of what I later found in my hands was far more gratifying than any sterile forecast.

The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw, with its kilometer-long title, is an album possibly more challenging than its predecessor, it needs to be assimilated in a much slower, more fragmented way, you need to grasp every whisper, every single reference to what it has to say. The alternation between destructive chaos and the return of hope here becomes total (as in "Autumn In Summer"), with a much more blatant use of psychedelia than before, an infusion of sensations ranging from annihilation to the most carefree optimism. Truly extraordinary. Songs that grow on their own legs, with improbable lengths (a beginning of 9, 10, and 20 minutes, an end of 4, 4, and 5, an intermezzo of 11) risk more and more of imploding on themselves as they progress. It is absolutely pointless to attempt to draw parallels between the various pieces, which should only be listened to without the possibility of describing them in detail. I want to make only one reference, and it is to "March To The Sea", a track from which a single was also taken as a delightful preview: a long suite of 20 minutes that is a true loss of senses, of the conception of time and space, if you manage to experience it in the way that best suits it. A spiral of sounds that travel between continuous chiaroscuros, between sludge oppressions and atmospheres that give way to optimism. But the true heartbeat of the track is there, after the first 7 minutes. The drums begin to swell more and more, lifting dust, beating continuously, as if those drumsticks were oars of a boat lost in the middle of the ocean desperately trying to return to shore. The guitar underneath whispers, it swells too. The atmosphere becomes cathartic, transcendent, sacred, liturgical. Until the annihilation due to distortions, which close everything in a slow acoustic finale: the masterpiece of the album.

I don't know who among you knows Pelican, who has heard of them, or who has never listened to them in their life, but this is a band that truly has something to say. And to be balanced, The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw is a record worthy of ovation. Think about it, before snubbing them.