NEW NOISE
BLANKET
Post-metallers’ second release explores the trappings of social media
WORDS: MATT MILLS
IN
SHORT:
SOUNDS
LIKE: Dreamy shoegaze melodies floating atop a foundation of monolithic post-metal
FOR FANS OF: Bossk, Holy Fawn,Deftones
CHECK OUT:
White noise
AS THE UK entered lockdown in 2020, Blanket were demoing 15 songs for their second album. By the following autumn, they’d scrapped every single one of them.
“It sounded like three different EPs,” guitarist Simon Morgan remembers of the material his band had hoped would follow debut album
How To Let Go.
“It wasn’t a coherent body of work; it was three different sides of Blanket."
One year after pushing the reset button, Blanket’s second full-length, Modern Escapism, is finally here. Unlike the fractured sounds cast to the wayside, its identity is clear as crystal, juxtaposing what brought them to the dance. While How To Let Go shimmered with optimism and post-rock sweetness, its successor is a sludgier beast, contrasting dainty vocals against plodding metal rhythms.
“We saw the light and we didn’t like it,” laughs Simon. He attributes the swelling heaviness to new drummer Aiden Baldwin, a devout metalhead, as well as the gloom endured worldwide over the past 18 months.