The Tower by Bolt Gun

In study of the Tarot, The Tower card typically features an image of a great monolith being struck down by lightning and people jumping from windows to escape, while crumbling rubble and flames rain down below. The card traditionally forewarns of sudden catastrophe and unexpected disasters. And on their new album The Tower, Australian post-metal outfit Bolt Gun perfectly encapsulates the destruction that often occurs as a result of fatal hubris.

Like watching dark storm clouds approach on the horizon, the album opens with a droning introduction, layering dissonant string tones to slowly build suspense. Doom-filled sludge brings the first track to its crescendo, an explosion of razor-sharp black metal riffs that signal the falling of The Tower. The theme continues on the next track, “The Vulture”, composed of circular refrains to evoke hungry birds of prey hunting for half-dead survivors in The Tower’s rubble. Crunchy harsh noise serves as a cue for the arrival of a demiurgic figure on “The Scapegoat”, before giving way to shoegazey semi-improvised psychedelia. The last track “A Faint Red Glow” shows the final scene after the destruction, with a meandering saxophone solo rising above the fiery embers smoldering in the wreckage.

At first, The Tower might seem like your typical atmospheric black metal album. However, with a uniquely ominous swirl of Jazz Noir, 2nd wave black metal, and dark ambient, Bolt Gun is not afraid to break free from the typical confines of the ABM subgenre. We just hope that more heavy bands will incorporate threatening saxophones into their instrumentation after hearing it executed so well on this boundary-pushing release.

- Kalen