(((O))) Review: Bank Myna- Eimuria

I only stumbled onto Parisian four piece Bank Myna in March this year when ‘Burn All Edges’ caught in my bandcamp post-metal filter. It felt like finding a beautiful shining flicker of gold in the bottom of the pan after shoogling through a lot of mud. Second album Eimuria is not simply a post-metal album and the 47 minutes cross multiple genres in a captivating and original album which is profoundly rewarding for those who immerse in the calm waters it appears to offer.

Eimuria, like a fine meal, is created with a number of ingredients which don’t all dominate the final taste but give the food its rounded flavour. Whilst post-rock and doom are the base there feels like edges of drone, occult and psychedelia. These additions are used to build the tension, atmosphere and background. For example ‘The Shadowed Body’ has a sense of repetition in the vibrations and strums as it ebbs and flows but it never repeats, as with all the tracks on the album the construction and execution of the music is mind-blowing. Where a band like E-L-R dips further into those sounds and repetitions, Bank Myna uses it merely as a cloak around the more prominent styles.

The four main tracks go between 8 minutes and over 13 minutes and it takes a good deal of skill to compose such musical feats without treading on the toes of itself or others before. The growth and journey feels organic and movements from drone to full on post-rock is unpredictable. There is a real sense of tension, the music can wind tight and either hold it there or burst open and this keeps me enthralled and gives a captivating aura to the music which aids the longevity and each track has different examples of that.

My personal favourite keeps switching between ‘The Other Faceless Me’, which has a stunning vocal performance from Maud Harribey and ranges from light and delicate to urgent pained expressions of Big|Brave as it is egged on by the increasing volume levels of the other members, and ‘Burn All The Edges’, which feels the heaviest song here with wonderful hints of the power of Sub Rosa.

Eimuria doesn’t demand attention but it deserves attention, when I give in to the magic and fall under the hypnosis, Bank Myna offers some of the most soul enriching music I have heard this year. Throughout the band is in total control and as a listener you are held in their warm hands being guided through the halls of Eimuria. This is an experience that needs to be given the time, care and attention that the band has poured into it to truly reap the ultimate rewards.