Post-rock/post-metal is a deceptively tough game to win, with many participants finding themselves in an endless cycle of ‘quiet-louder-quiet’. Success comes to those who take their listener on a dynamic journey – the way that Isis’s Oceanic, or GY!BE’s Lift Your Skinny Fists... do – and in that respect American Dream from this Albuquerque-based trio is unfortunately rather like getting a National Express coach up to Scotland and back.
That’s not wholly a criticism though, as while the opening and latter thirds of the LP are comprised of flat, almost Kyuss-driven affairs, it’s during the middle third that Night Terrain truly excel, with agitated, brooding builds backed by samples of acerbic comedian George Carlin in American Dream and the paranoid, miasmic grooves of Dusk, which immediately brings to mind the hazy atmospherics perfected by New Zealand’s Jakob.
Once past the identikit service stations, the scenery halfway is almost worth the journey.
