In 2009, something happened to this band when they added ‘of the Water Towers’ to their original moniker. While the two EPs that the band released under the name New Keepers in 2007 and 2008 (re-released in 2009 as the compilation Chronicles) demonstrated their stoner and doom roots, there was little there to mark them out as anything other than yet another band working within the genre.
Come 2011’s The Calydonian Hunt and the band’s potential begins to emerge in a much more pronounced way than on those early EPs. But though their voice was beginning to appear, ultimately they remained a band yet to harness their strengths and create something outstanding. And now, two years later, the collective musical capacities and song writing skills of New Keepers Of The Water Towers has seen an incredible shift, the band transcending genre boundaries and the musical limitations of their earlier works to create The Cosmic Child.
From the spacey stomping intro and Alice In Chains/Mastodon harmony vocals and melodies of ‘The Great Leveller’ with its textured lead work through to the simple acoustic work of the closing title track, New Keepers of the Water Towers exploit their musical ability to its fullest potential. Each track traverses the full dynamic range to give flesh to their individual forms with not a moment feeling wasted, unnecessarily indulgent, or even as simple filler. ‘Visions of Death’ opens with gently paced yet hypnotically alluring acoustic arpeggios that slowly takes shape until at around the three minute mark comes an urgent prog riff that surges the track forward into its cosmically stirring spectrum.
Both the twelve minute ‘Pyre For The Red Sage’ and ‘Lapse’ have the depth of a concept album and the spacey ‘Cosmos’, slower in tempo and laced in melody, harmony, and mystical weight is balanced well between these two colossal tracks. Individually, the tracks stand tall, but taken together this album has with the feel of a concept album and so becomes much more than the sum of its parts.
With such an accomplished and intricately woven piece of work that is as subtly nuanced as it is vast in scope, New Keepers of the Water Towers have elevated themselves high above the position they were in just two years ago. If you like Pink Floyd (and if you don’t, go away this instant), the acoustic and prog aspects of Led Zep, Crack The Skye-era Mastodon, Deliverance to Ghost Reveries-era Opeth, Alice In Chains, a bit of stoner, and any band that ever made music that is nothing less than extraordinary, this is for you.
9/10
Jason Guest
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