No one does music quite like Austin’s Glassing. Nearly impossible to pigeonhole in its blend of jagged riffs and crystalline melodies, critics have conjured the likes of post-metal, post-black, post-rock, mathcore, shoegaze, sludge, noise rock, screamo, and post-hardcore to describe it – none ever quite sticking the landing. Comparisons to Amenra, Deafheaven, Holy Fawn, and Infant Island are rife – fair but incomplete. Ascending to the ether with a style formed on 2017’s Light and Death, honed in 2019’s Spotted Horse, and perfected with 2021’s Twin Dream, Glassing seems to level up with each release, its tonal calculations more fluid and organic while its gritted-teeth punishment never foregone. From the Other Side of the Mirror is another chapter and success for an act renowned for excellence.
The style that Glassing proffers is best exemplified in the dichotomy of two tracks separated by brief interlude, “Defacer” and “Nominal Will.” The former is absolutely vicious with thick, chunky blackened sludge riffs raining down with volcanic ferocity; the latter deals in a consistently sanguine and heart-wrenching melodic lead guitar approach that floats above the bass-heavy chugs, giving purpose to the pain. This dichotomy, perhaps embodying two sides of the mirror, courses through the album’s forty-two minutes with a tantalizing simplicity of devastating riffs and heart-wrenching melody. It may not top Twin Dream in its ambition but its more contemplative tones and devastatingly thick riffs collide for an absolute tour-de-force nonetheless.
From the Other Side of the Mirror by Glassing
Glassing’s sound nonetheless feels more streamlined despite this dichotomy. Compared to Twin Dream, where multiple styles, vocals, and movements collided, From the Other Side of the Mirror feels refreshingly straightforward. Tracks like “Anything You Want,” “Nominal Will,” and “Ritualist” fuse undercurrents of pulsing blackened sludge with soaring guitar leads and choral cleans, moving between segments with seamless ease. Elsewhere, the two ends of the spectrum are showcased neatly, as the gentle melodies of “Nothing Touches You” and interlude “The Kestrel Goes” are starkly vulnerable compared to the heaviness. On the other end, tracks “As My Heart Rots” and “Circle Down” take notes from “Defacer” in blistering heaviness, relying on blackened tremolo, sludge weight, and a dissonant mathcore quality laid atop a post-metal blueprint, absolutely leveling with the hugeness of their riffs. Dustin Coffman’s vocals return to the simplicity of the blackened snarl, adding a needed edge. You can’t accuse Glassing of going soft.
While ambition is in the eye of the beholder, there are some simple setbacks to From the Other Side of the Mirror. Glassing’s strongest asset is its ability to build tension between jaggedness and melody, and while “Ritualist” and “Defacer” bend hard into this tension, other tracks simply fall into one or another. “Nothing Touches You” pales in comparison to “Anything You Want,” and the stark palettes between “Defacer” and “Nominal Will” can be jarring. Likewise between “Circle Down” and “Wake” – in spite of an interlude between them. While interludes “Sallow” and “The Kestrel Goes” attempt to smoothen transitions between these soundscapes, they largely come across as unnecessary. Worse, closer “Wake” does not feel as climactic as it ought to be, feeling more like a weaker “Anything You Want” with no distinct resolution.
In reality, Glassing’s biggest issue is its sequencing, in that each track is accomplished with gusto and bulletproof performances across the board, but placement within the album feels a bit off. Twin Dream relegated these soundscapes to the first half or the second through a hardcore filter, but From the Other Side of the Mirror attempts the herculean feat of streamlining them with more contemplative grace, adding greater weight to the no-holds-barred punishment of “Defacer,” “As My Heart Rots,” and “Circle Down.” I wouldn’t consider From the Other Side of the Mirror a step-down, but a different beast entirely – from one of the most exciting metal bands today.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Pelagic Records
Websites: glassing.bandcamp.com | glassingband.com | facebook.com/glassingband
Releases Worldwide: April 26th, 2024
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