Album Review: Moving Mountains - 'Waves'

Experimental musicians can be tricky ones to process, kind of like the "is it art or is it shit" debate, no one really knows, it's all left to viewer/listener discretion to decide if something is good or bad. With their debut album 'Pneuma,' Moving Mountains essentially seemed to get it right, based purely on the fact that many agreed the record was good, myself included, however the follow-up 'Waves,' is a true test for the fans.

The band have changed their style from the ambient post-rock/hardcore of the debut to a standard brand of post-hardcore which lacks the maturity of the groups past efforts. The opening track My Life Is Like A Chase Dream (And I'm Still Having Chase Dreams), seems to have been written purely to have a big opener and Where Two Bodies Lie, which follows, is simplistic by this bands standards, with instruments seemingly working against each other.

Tired Tiger and Once Rendering are the only glimmers of what the band used to be, atmospheric in nature with well planned structures making these tracks some of the highlights. It seems sad though that the finer points of this record are the similarities to the debut when a band like Moving Mountains should be advancing in leaps and bounds.

The record begins to pick up as it moves along, The Cascade features some great guest vocals from Moneen’s Kenny Bridges and Alleviate which matches its aggressive nature with some great melody lines. The final track Full Circle, features powerful vocals and a mix of the band’s sounds old and new, if this track is where they are trying to get to then all hope is not lost.

By no means did I expect Moving Mountains to replicate ‘Pneuma,’ I just hoped their change would seem more of a unique progression. I wonder if my reaction would have been different to this record if it was released by some other band as Moving Mountains set the bar quite high for themselves with their debut and 'Waves' just doesn't seem to match up.

1. My Life Is Like A Chase Dream (And I’m Still Having Chase Dreams)
2. Where Two Bodies Lie
3. Tired Tiger
4. The Cascade
5. Once Rendering
6. Always Only For Me
7. Alleviate
8. Parts In Different Places
9. Furnace Woods
10. Full Circle