Back in 2013, the Prado brothers, James and George, along with Eric Lafontaine created the beginnings of Black Sails for Red Seas. They later rounded out and solidified their sound with the addition of Christian Simon. What they ended up doing was forging the world of crushing metal with post-rock’s signature layering of sound and textures, and creating a beast of grandiose and epic proportions. In 2015, they released their first EP, Wave I. A great first release. I thought it was awesomely heavy and melodic when I first heard it. However, with this second EP release, Wave II, it seems that Wave I was just the calm before the storm.
Wave II starts with the track, ‘AASB’. A track that comes rushing out of the gate at full tilt with hard hitting drums, gritty, melodic guitars and bass.
The track ‘Palisades’ follows. While listening to this track, I couldn’t help to take the title into consideration and imagine the band as sentries creating that protective wall of far reaching sound, soaring thousands of feet into the air. Everything just comes together with such technical precision, starting from the drums to the wailing and distorted guitars and bass. It’s a masterpiece of a track. The band recently released a video for ‘Palisades’. Definitely worth a view and gives the listener a glimpse into the inner workings of the band.
‘Silfra’ begins with a great ambient intro. The track then oscillates between distorted guitars and heavy hitting drums and melodic playing. The finale is epic, reminiscent of God is an Astronaut, with the added touch of keys.
The EP ends with, ‘To the lions’, a track likened to Russian Circles and their track ‘Vorel’. ‘To the lions’ has that same intensity and incredible instrumentation and textures. When the track hit the four-minute mark I had to stop and playback a few times. It sounded so much like an organ but I thought how is it possible? The playing was so fast, it was incredible. I did come to find out that the sound was in fact a Hammond organ. It’s an epic finale to an epic EP.
With this release, Black Sails for Red Seas have continued with what they started in Wave I but with a more heavy, menacing soundscape, laced with hits of light in between. The band continues in the footsteps of bands such as Russian Circles, Audry Fall and Pelican by forging metal and post-rock together and creating a unique and epic sound. The EP, Wave II is being released in collaboration with Deathbound Records and the band’s Bandcamp page.
