Article by Umberto Scaramozzino
The release of “Embers”, eleventh studio album released at the end of 2024, reported i God is an Astronaut to focus on the present and above all on the future. Having put aside the necessary celebrations for entering their third decade of activity, the Irish band had the opportunity to take back its creative strength and enjoy the contribution of Jo Quail (known for having already worked with groups such as Amenra and Mono) on cello and di Dara O'Brien on the sitar.
“The End of the Beginning” and “All Is Violent, All Is Bright”, the first two albums of the discography which together make up one of the best segments of post-rock music of the 2000s, undoubtedly remain the unattainable peaks. Yet, with “Embers”, GIAA have found aambition which might have appeared dormant. It is an interesting album, much more focused than “Ghost Tapes 10” and its predecessors, which also seems to have renewed the Irish trio's desire to cross the typical boundaries of their genre, while remaining firmly within every post-rock style that has defined an abundant twenty-year career.
Compared to the tour three years ago, when they presented themselves as a quartet or even quintet depending on the tour leg, the return to the power trio composed of Kinsella brothers and the new drummer Anxo Silveiraparadoxically seems to give new impetus to the band, which returns to show itself more compactwith rougher sounds. The elements vaguely exotic of the new live album tend to flatten out, impoverishing a bit the ambition glimpsed among the tracks of “Embers”, but making the tour sustainable and giving a primordial fury perhaps much more congenial to a conservative audience such as that of post-rock. And then, the playing quality of God Is An Astronaut remains astounding.
Anxo Silveira, in particular, does not make us miss the historic drummer Lloyd Hanneywho after 22 years behind the drums, and after having recorded the last album, decided to abandon the project peacefully. Originally from Galicia and recently moved to Ireland, the former drummer of Baliza he found a way to fit perfectly into the musical world of Torsten and Niels Kinsella. In the first songs it seems a bit rigid, but after about twenty minutes it loosens up and helps God Is An Astronaut to release an almost metalalternating with moments “krautrock“, with a straight and hypnotic rhythm.
Despite being instrumental music, the communicative power of GIAA's suites is unparalleled. The more aggressive style inherited from “Ghost Tapes 10” is now a pillar of the Irish combo's sound, now increasingly closer to a post-metal hybridization. All this is combined with the typical emotion of the movement that the music lovers of the web have long since renamed “crescendo core“, to underline the dynamic “loud-quiet-loud” structure that makes the crescendo the strong point of most of the songs. A chase for the sonic climax that turns into dopamine and leads God Is An Astronaut fans to never have enough.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
