Sleepmakeswaves - ...And So We Destroyed Everything (2011)

Band: Sleepmakeswaves
Country: Sydney, Australia
Style: Post-Rock
Label: Independent

I'm sure I've said in a previous review that while I love metal, I also have grown quite fond of post-rock as well, and thus, enjoy looking for new bands from that genre. This one was recommended by a friend of mine, Matt Finney, who also guests on here, so I decided to look into it. I have high hopes seeing as I don't take recommendations from just anyone.
Post-rock, as a genre, I usually like to express emotional states, because I feel like it's one of the few genres that comes across as, I guess, authentic in conveying different emotions. From happiness to sadness to anger, and so on, I feel like they can all come out through the build-ups and falls the music is so typically goes through. There's a broad spectrum of emotions used throughout this album, but I feel that it works so well on here, in comparison to other bands, is how well these guys use dynamics. Like I just said, ups and downs in the music, but there are all sorts of influences coming in from folk and acoustic music, electronic music, and metal in here as well, which really expand upon this from being a solely post-rock album.
Coming from Matt, I expected something a lot darker, but this really doesn't express darkness all that much. There are moments where the music is a lot more somber and melancholic, Our Time Is Short But Your Watch Is Slow, but a lot of the album doesn't really dwell on that. There's a lot of beautiful melodies weaved throughout here that are just fantastic, I personally love the short ballad, We Love You When You're Awkward. I also like how even though this album isn't really "metal," there are more than a few parts on here where they come off as just being really heavy sounding. The most metal part of this album comes out in the title-track, ...And So We Destroyed Everything, where you get some nice doomy riffs and brooding atmosphere.
In the end, I really enjoyed this record, there wasn't a song that I thought was out of place or bad. Though I expected this to at least be decent, it blew away the expectations that I had for it and surpassed the expectations I had for most post-rock this year. This comes highly recommended from me, definitely check this out.
Overall Score: 9
Highlights: A Gaze Blank and Pitiless As The Sun, Now We Rise and We Are Everywhere, ...And So We Destroyed Everything