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Released on October 27, 2014 via Argonauta Records
You need this album in your life!
Now I’ve got the formalities out of the way let me introduce you to Selva and their rather stunning debut album Life Habitual, that combines all the best parts of post-metal, post-hardcore and throws in some black metal influences to boot.
The press release is at pains to point out references to Celeste, Alcest and Russian Circles, which is fair, however the influences of Cult Of Luna and Deafheaven are also prevalent.
It also starts in fairly innocuous fashion with the intro track of ‘[I]’ with just some sci-fi effects and piano for company, which leads into the amazing ‘Enclosure’ that wastes no time setting its stall out with post-metal melodic RIFFage accompanied by ferocious blast beats and growled vocals. However this is no one tempo pony as the seven minute running time leads into various shifts in dynamics and tempo changes and balances the mix of melodic soundscapes with outright ferocity to aplomb. The growled vocals are somewhat lost in the mix but this actually works in their favour to add further atmosphere and not overshadow the stunning musician ship. A special note must go to the drumming that propels the heavy sections along as the guitars are fairly restrained in the use of power chords until the intense finale.
The title track ‘Life Habitual’ is an unfortunate comedown after this as although a decent slice of slow motion crushing doom in its own right, it’s far too simplistic and repetitive, as such it seems oddly out of place between the thrill rides of ‘Enclosure’ and ‘Persistent’. The latter of which picks up the baton from the former to embark on another joyride of post black metal that also wastes no time in unleashing the blast beats to propel along the post metal RIFFS that once again constantly mixes up the dynamics and tempos and infusing angular post-hardcore RIFFS into the mix which reaches heights of glorious crescendos!
Once again we are jolted out of momentum this time with the VERY unsettling interlude ‘[/]’, but ‘Existence’ also once again makes up for this by starting with outright furious black metal blasting to cleanse the pallet before embarking on another odyssey of soaring post-metal soundscapes including some very Russian Circles-like moments.
Just like the intro they finish on a rather low key tone with the instrumental acoustic of ‘Gloaming’ that is nice and pleasant, but does feel anti climatic.
So, three amazing tracks in a 7 track album, but definitely worth it!
