By: Gareth Watkin
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Finnish post-rockers Slowrun offer the follow-up album to their 2013 album Prologue with their latest slab of instrumental rock titled Resonance. Once again, Slowrun delve deep into their generally pleasing and enjoyable aesthetics of post-rock music, offering a familiar and approachable sound that rises to the surface, showcasing its strengths in a subtle manner. The new album sees the band improving upon the promising sound of their début effort, utilizing their talents and skills and honing in on everything, in the creation of a strong and enjoyable post-rock experience. At times, Resonance may falter in some of the same ways that Prologue did, though much of the work feels like a generous improvement.
On Resonance, Slowrun dive deep into their understanding of the post-rock genre, relying hard on some of its formalities, but utilizing them brilliantly in ways. It is perhaps arguable that at times, Slowrun’s method of post-rock relies a lot on its existing concepts, but its in the natural talent the band possess, in their ability to interpret and showcase the genre, that makes Resonance such a strong and enjoyable album experience. Certain tracks do oddly resonate brilliantly with the listener, with the band balancing some gentle and sparse moments of beauty with more sudden yet still subtle walls of noise.
Like certain parts of Prologue, there are a few of the same little problems on Resonance, though perhaps less frequent on the whole album itself. Certain sections may come across as feeling a little bit like Slowrun simply presenting what everyone would come to expect from a band working within the genre. This may be felt by the more cynical fans of the genre, but those who simply enjoy things for what they are will find a lot to enjoy on Resonance, which feels like a band really trying their all to create something they can be proud of, which they should most definitely be in this case.
Overall, Resonance feels like a very strong effort from a band who seem to be taking great strides in their understanding of what they’re achieving. Slowrun have certainly advanced comfortably from their first effort, hardly overshadowing Prologue to the point of irrelevancy, but simply building up upon the groundwork they originally set down. Resonance feels like a step in the right direction, like a band starting to really work out their identity and using their strengths and talents to achieve that goal. There’s definitely something worth keeping an eye on here, and something we hope will continue to grow over the years.
