And So I You From Afar Gangs Rar

When And So I Watch You From Afar released their third album All Hail Bright Futures a couple of years ago, it was a dramatic musical shift that brought along with it the usual and expected amount of conflict among the band’s fanbase. In one camp were the people who saw the album’s unapologetically bright, peppy, and sugary melodies and themes as a surprising and welcome change from the usual fare of doom and gloom often present in both metal and instrumental rock/metal. All Hail Bright Futures wasn’t afraid to be in-your-face levels of gleeful, employing bouncy rhythms, chanting, and instruments not normally found in such music (flute and melodica, anyone?). It was an approach executed so well though that it was very difficult to not be entranced by it even in spite of some things the band lost in their prior work in the process. Those in the second camp, however, mourned the loss of the more aggressive and technically-focused edge of the band’s prior releases, and criticized the album as too simplified and poppy. Tonic lemon parade revisited.

And So I Watch You From Afar have announced dates in the UK with Polymath in November. All 2018 tour dates below. JUL 13 Cheltenham, UK @ 2000 Trees 2018 JUL 21 Galway, IE @ Galway International Arts Festival.

All Hail Bright Futures certainly left the band bigger than ever, but the question leading up to their follow-up to that, Heirs, was if they would build upon that success by doubling down on that formula, returning back to their musical roots, or by flipping the script again and doing something completely different once more. Heirs suggests that the band have decided to do all three at once, and the result is a very good album that mostly succeeds in threading the needle of past, current, and future. Based on the three singles released prior to the album’s release alone (“Run Home,” “Wasps,” and “Redesigned a Million Times”) it certainly seemed like the band were preparing us for All Hail Bright Futures, Part II (2Futures2Bright). “Run Home” in particular feels like the spiritual successor to “Big Thinks Do Remarkable” with its frantic runs and simplistic chanting (“run home” instead of “the sun is in our eyes”).

The other two follow similar patterns and sentiments, and along with second track “These Secret Kings I Know” (which, along with “Redesigned a Million Times,” are perhaps the most lyrics-focused tracks the band have released thus far), the first third or so of Heirs feels incredibly locked into the precedent set by All Hail Bright Futures, for better or worse. All four tracks are more than solid and build upon the success of their predecessors, but there’s also a slight sense of redundancy to them that runs the risk of making Heirs feel all too familiar and, as the track suggests, “redesigned” many times before. Thankfully the rest of the album after that first string of tracks breaks off into several different directions, including some sounds more reminiscent of their self-titled and Gangs days. As soon as “People Not Sleeping” comes in with its punchy hits, winding melody, and aggressive refrains, Heirs takes on an entirely new life. Its brilliant mixture of energy, complexity, and nuance (the almost underwater-sounding plucking solo around the track’s midpoint is an unexpected treat) is a sensibility that carries through much of the album’s latter half. “A Beacon, A Compass, An Anchor” is a slow-burner of a track that spends most of its lengthy runtime building off of a drum-anchored groove, calling to mind some of the great work of math/dance-rock hybrid Battles.