Six Organs Of Admittance
Shelter From The Ash

Usually, when a relatively young artist has been releasing albums for 8 years on a yearly basis, there are two possibilities: either they are driven by an uncontrollable urge to compose, or they once wrote a hit song and their label is trying to squeeze them dry like lemons to gather as much as possible before the inevitable market implosion. Fortunately, Ben Chasny, the sole proprietor of the SOOA moniker, belongs to the group of hyper-productive artists.

After the ethno-trance efforts of the previous "The Sun Awakens", good old Ben saw fit not to rest on his laurels, basking in critical and public success (thanks also to his becoming a fixed member of another cult band like Comets On Fire), and has released yet another long-distance effort. "Shelter From The Ash" stands within his discography as a compendium for the understanding of his artistic trajectory. It contains both the distinctly folk pathos typical of the early period, as well as the evolutions and deviations of the second. If there's a flaw to be found, it's the lack of edges, not so much on a musical level (even though the free drumming phrases of Chris Corsano are sometimes missed), but rather for the atmospheres evoked. The album flows smoothly, almost innocuously one might say, with the risk of going unnoticed, or, conversely, appealing to a bit too many types of listeners. By this I’m not defending the faithful from the first hour (also because I am not one), but from Chasny I always expect musical trials that are uncompromising.

To be clear, "Shelter From The Ash" is neither mediocre nor interlocutory, because Ben's technical and compositional scope is so broad that it prevents him from writing "bad" songs. Even in the most canonical episodes, as in the ballad "Strangled Road", Chasny turns the sparse instrumental setup and vocal duet to his advantage, intertwining them perfectly, and imbuing the track with suffered emotion that would otherwise be mundane. Interesting and successful is the tense climax of the lengthy "Coming To Get You", battled between acoustic phrasing and downtuned electric; equally successful are the prolonged psychedelic fingerpicking of "Goddess Atonement" and the hypnotic folk of "Final Wing". Up to the title track, an almost pop episode in its accessibility, yet filled with a peculiar desert-like and hallucinatory visionarity.

As for me, I await Ben's next endeavor, holding off judgments about the future and comparisons with the past, but enjoying the present.