The
Hopeless Records
-issued sixth studio long-player from the Pennsylvania-based progressive rock/post-hardcore unit,
The Amulet
opens with frontman
Anthony Green
crooning "Fed by hand and caught with force/our bed, sweet death." After planting those seeds of disquiet in the tenderest tenor ever,
Green
and company launch into the meat of
's lead single, "Lustration," an icy-hot blast of meticulously crafted prog pop, and arguably the most engaging song on the album. Follow-up "Never Tell a Soul" impresses as well with its nervy, sci-fi post-punk atmospherics and
's effortless shift from clarion to guttural, but the meandering and melodically inert "Premonition of the Hex," also released as a single," kills some of the momentum. What follows is pretty much textbook
Circa Survive
-- jarring tonal shifts, epic drumming, sweet/sour melodies, and enough mathy bits to advance you two grades ahead -- with highlights arriving via the hard-hitting "Rites of Investiture" and the slow-building, but ultimately rewarding title track. Longtime listeners will know the drill, but newbies looking for some frame of reference might want to imagine
Sigur Ros
,
Mew
, and
Sunny Day Real Estate
in an art school lunchroom brawl. [
was also released on LP.] ~ James Christopher Monger