Big | Brave: stark and mysterious

Vital

SOUTHERN LORD

Montreal’s majestic post-metallers go deeper into their crystal maze

BIG | BRAVE HAVE carved a strange and singular career since 2012, and Vital doesn’t see them waver an inch from their solemn trajectory. Like an iceberg alone and utterly adrift, the Montreal trio are less a rock band than a slow, steady, inexorable force of nature that’s unforgiving but also undeniably beautiful. They occupy a space that’s not quite doom, drone, noise-or post-rock, yet it’s one that’s capable of satisfying the more discerning fans of any of those subgenres.

The band carefully hew a series of vast, impossible structures that only seem to make sense when viewed from a great distance. Riffs rise up like huge opalescent towers through which Robin Wattie’s achingly beautiful voice echoes – equal parts otherworldly yodel and harrowingly cathartic ululation. Drawing comparisons with everyone from Sunn O))) and Bardo Pond to Come and Blonde Redhead, their maximal approach to minimalism is often bewildering, like being lost in a maze of crystals. Half Breed, for example, pulls itself up from the ground with a series of rumbles, crumples, creaks and whines, but moves beyond abstraction and forces itself into a gloriously unsteady lope.