A step away from greatness.
'All Is Violent, All Is Bright' is the second album from Irish band God Is An Astronaut, who formed in 2002 and are composed of brothers Niels and Torsten, joined on this recording by drummer Lloyd Hanley. The music of God Is An Astronaut is not easy to label or confine within genre, and although they are most frequently described as indie or post-rock it is safe to say that they and their sound are far away from that of the majority of today's indie bands.
The album opens with 'Fragile', a track that builds slowly from a few isolated guitars into a gorgeous wall of sound, driven by subtle yet strong bass and percussion. Around halfway through the track the pace is cranked up another notch, into an anthemic and emotional peak, one with vocals but without lyrics. The pace then slows and we enter the album's second and title track after only a few seconds of silence – it is something of a shame that there is any silence as with this type of music it is possible to blend tracks into each other seamlessly and create a much more fluid-sounding album.
'All Is Violent, All Is Bright' continues in this vein throughout its 10 tracks, some ('Forever Lost', for example) being quieter overall than others ('Suicide By Star' being more on the loud side); but all having a variety of paces and usually featuring a wall of sound. Despite the lack of lyrics (vocals are used as an instrument by the band, and not seen as something that needs to be in the foreground) the emotion of the songs is intense, occasionally desperate and omnipresent. It's hard to define key influences or sound-alikes but at various times God Is An Astronaut call to mind The Cure, perhaps-forgotten turn-of-the-century band My Vitriol; and last but not least, the Icelandic Sigur Rós. This is a band that can be enjoyed by fans of indie, industrial, electronica, 'chill-out' and perhaps even dance.
The title of this review is 'a step away from greatness' and it's only fair to explain why that was chosen. God Is An Astronaut are producing quite an original sound here, but after the initial appeal and novelty of that said difference has worn off the tracks tend to become indistinguishable from one another – even on my fifth listen to the CD it was impossible to point to any stand-out tracks. 'All Is Violent, All Is Bright' is a far more interesting album than many available at the moment, and will be an ideal soundtrack to the approaching winter (I can imagine this as a great driving/riding on the train album), but the tracks need just that little bit more variation between them for the band to near perfection.