Post-Nonsense

It’s been two years since Münster, Germany’s Long Distance Calling released a full length album. The post-metal instrumental specialists bring you a rather long epic of guitar slashing, prog vibing and blues noodling. So, it’s kind of what you’re expecting from the group—or the genre itself. (Sorry, not to generalize too much.) With every track averaging above the five-minute mark, you’re in for the long haul on this one—so you better like your prog zeniths.

The album begins with instrumentation seemingly inspired by Opeth’s Damnation, or a heavy dose of Russian Circles. There are heavy, semi-distorted bass rumbles, folky guitar arpeggiations, sustained power chords and a synth pad here or there—all before reaching Gilmore-esque blues exploration. After multiple wind-ups and wind-downs, the track explodes into one last chug fest. It’s a satisfying opener before getting into dragon-slaying territory. Almost-title track “Inside The Flood” features member Martin Fischer belting out vocals that are a cross between Mikael Åkerfeldt, Eddie Vedder and the late Layne Staley. This all swells down to, again, another Pink Floyd-ian blues rocker with supporting folk chording. “Ductus” leads down a similar path with a bit of a Tool-like spoken word section in the opening, with exception to some nice ’70s Rhodes plinking.

The second half of the album presents more heroic breakdowns with the same type of dynamic shifts. However, “Welcome Change” does feature some nice, near falsetto vocals from Mr. Fischer. But, again, you’re met with similar three-minute bridge/jam sessions full of tribal tom thumping and blues pretension. Some scrambled radio transmissions open “Waves” to—again—more thumpy drum sections sandwiched by space blues.

At a little over eight minutes, “Breaker” beats you over the head with one last expansive journey, while the final track, “Black Hole,” brings to the table possibly the most interesting instrumental ideas in, perhaps, the whole album. Thin drum sequencers, tremolo stabs, and synth swirls finally break up the stylistic monotony. However, this won’t forgive the solid hour of so-so post-nonsense. The Flood Inside will either appeal to diehards of the scene or fall flat to the pioneers of prog. Still, if you’re tired of waiting for Opeth to release a new album, you could try keeping Long Distance Calling’s latest on speed dial.