Completing the band’s album trilogy, the highly-anticipated Trails Of Gold wraps up a noteworthy journey for alt rockers Deaf Whale, and yet at the same time, marks a beautifully enchanting introduction to their music.
Deliverance engages from the outset, a haunting opener of piano and voice united in a rising crescendo of chaos and rhythm and energy. The voice comes in, poetic and personal, unique in melody and concept and tone, and Deaf While are quick to assert themselves as distinct and undeterred by expectation. A brilliant opening track.
Unconfined by genre, instead guided by a clear artistic direction and purpose, Trails Of Gold presents a theatrical and evocative exploration of ideas and stories, by way of hypntoic musicainship both simple and complex in equal parts.
Structure is crucial, and the progression from softness and intrigue to intensity and weight is finely mastered. From Deliverance we move into a whole new level of fascination, dissonance and satisfaction all combined. Tied at Midnight makes sense in the context of Deaf Whale and Trails of Gold, but in and of itself relays a wholly distorted and powerful alt-rock aura.
This diversity continues for What Got Lost, an indie rock rawness taking hold, still the simple back-and-forth chords and the anthemic vocals maintaining roots – though in this case the song leans towards progressive metal, with a dash of something like Gospel in those unified vocal peaks.
The style of Trails Of Gold undoubtedly captures attention first and foremost. The music is quite phenomenal, uplifting and heartbreaking intermittently, skilful and immersive all at once. Woven into this is of course the subject matter, these poetic songs and lyrical journeys. There’s plenty to unwrap within, but it takes perhaps a second listen – at least for the newly found fans – to truly start getting lost within the scenes and stories of the project.
Given the band’s originality and artistic integrity, not to mention their ability as performers, as musicians – the welcoming emotion and tone of the leading voice – the whole album is a pleasure to spend time with, and seems to reward its audience a little more with each revisit.
Download or stream Trails Of Gold. Find Deaf Whale on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.
