I have a lot of reasons to thank/love ArcTanGent Festival for and the discovery of Peterborough’s finest being another one, they were not actually playing but had free CD samples at the merch store and the name was enough to intrigue me.
Having formed in 2008 Pet Slimmers of the Year (weird name, deal with it) and their brand of (predominantly) instrumental post-metal appear to be finally on the rise with their recent signing to Candlelight Records and with good reason too as debut album Fragments of Uniforms lives up to the promise shown on earlier EPs (which are free on bandcamp by the way).
A band that favours creating atmosphere and intensity via cycled patterns and subtlety over using a sledgehammer as any outright heaviness is used sparingly for increased effectiveness to deliver a master class of the genre.
Essential for fans of Rosetta, Cult of Luna and the likes….
‘Arterias’ gets the ball rolling with mid paced “jangly” guitars and rumbling drums slowly gathering momentum and heaviness so much so that the eventual crashing introduction of power chords is a proper surprise, the introspective melodies continue throughout with an early highlight being ‘Gathering Half the Deep and Full of Voices” which uses this formula to build and build into a monstrous crescendo.
‘Tides’ is a surprisingly calm affair and also serves as an ideal warm up for slow burning but ultimately crushing ‘Mare Imbium’ while 'Churning of the Sea of Milk’ wastes no time by being straightforwardly heavy and is one of the few tracks to contain a vocals passage.
A mention to the superb production job done by Jonny Renshaw (Devil Sold His Soul) that ensures all the intricacies and developments ring out crystal clear.
The out and out highlight of the album is the lead single ‘Days Since I Disappeared’ which is achingly beautiful and has a memorable and effective music video to boot.
