Mountainscape are a cinematic post-metal band from Reading, England, formed in 2019 and featuring the talents of drummer James Scrivener and guitarist Dan Scrivener – both formerly of Traces, Aklash and Saturnian – along with bassist Ethan Bishop, who also plays with Cairiss. Their first album, Acceptance, was released in early 2021 and was followed by 2022s Atoms Unfurling and 2024s Iridescent. Iridescent in particular garnered an array of critical acclaim upon its release, with Veil Of Sound describing it as “a luminous triumph, a testament to the power of music to move, inspire, and transcend.” Some bands may have found creating an album to follow in Iridescent’s respected footsteps a daunting challenge, but for Mountainscape it simply became a basecamp from which to explore new territories, to reach further and discover more. Different pathways opened up before the band as they began to write, pathways that lead them to Traversing Realms – a unique album, a journey through the music and works of imagination that had inspired their own creative endeavours.
The first two pieces that make up Traversing Realms are ‘Dune’ and ‘The Elder Scrolls’. These incredible works have been crafted using themes and melodies from the soundtracks to the recent Dune films, composed by Hans Zimmer and the Oblivion and Skyrim games, composed by Jeremy Soule. These are not simple ‘cover versions’ of the two soundtracks, the band have deconstructed and rebuilt them, reframing them in their own image while retaining the immersive spirit and epic scope of the originals. ‘Dune’ is momentous and alien; thundering, monolithic riffs and huge, reverberating drums, blasting intensity and passages of dreaming reflection. With the evocative, beguiling vocals of Amaya López-Carromero (Maud the Moth, Healthy Living) rising up through the summoned sandstorms the atmosphere is all consuming, an imaginative overload. The transformation from ‘Dune’ to ‘The Elder Scrolls’ is sublime, the band drawing you across the space between worlds, entwining you in threads of magic. ‘The Elder Scrolls’ is a tribute, a celebration of treasured memories, an odyssey through realities beyond the mundane. The power unleashed as the track shifts into glorious blast beats is staggering – utterly exhilarating. There is so much to discover here, so many different textures to revel in, different dreams to lose yourself in. To conclude Traversing Realms, Mountainscape move from vast dreamscapes to a powerful requiem for lost loved ones. Written from personal experience, but with the power and insight to speak universally, ‘Closure’ possesses both a beautiful dignity and a raw honesty of emotion. Overflowing with superb guitar lines and incorporating a string quartet, it is transformative, draining, cathartic…breathtaking. What Mountainscape have achieved with Traversing Realms is nothing short of spectacular.
The drums for Traversing Realms were recorded by Joe Clayton at No Studios (Ba’al, Conjurer etc), with the band’s Dan and Ethan shouldering the responsibility for all other aspects of the album’s sound – and the results are superb. Adorned in the magnificent artwork of True Spilt Milk Designs (Crowgod, Arcane Mercy etc), Traversing Realms will be released by Road To Masochist on July 24th, on CD, vinyl (with an additional track) and digital download. This is one of the most enthralling post-metal albums you will hear this year, or any other.
Line-up:
Dan Scrivener – Guitar
Ethan Bishop – Bass
James Scrivener – Drums
Vocals on ‘Dune’ by Amaya López-Carromero
Violin and viola on ‘Closure’ by Sally Hobbs and Thea Hobbs
Cello on ‘Closure’ by Uta Mulenga
Double Bass on ‘Closure’ by Tom Marsh
Genre: Cinematic Post-Metal
For fans of: Russian Circles | Inter Arma | Telepathy | If These Trees Could Talk
Further Information:
https://www.facebook.com/mountainscapeuk/
https://www.instagram.com/mountainscapeuk/
https://mountainscapeuk.bandcamp.com/
https://roadtomasochist.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/roadtomascochist/
