Lurking with intent on the fringes of the Irish scene for a while now, Cork lads REST continue to go from strength to strength with this slightly belated mini-LP follow up to their excellent 2004 debut ‘Burning In Water, Drowning In Flame.’
Not that they’ve been idle, mind. There’s been a personnel change with original bassist Mark bowing out and incoming four-string slinger Colm having been rigorously put through his paces when Rest toured the UK for the first time with Swedish post-metallers Cult Of Luna in the spring of 2006. The completion of this new mini-LP has been the priority, though, and after only a couple of listens it becomes clear that Rest haven’t lost their touch.
OK, initially only two tracks after an absence of nearly three years might seem a tad paltry, but they clock in at 20 minutes overall and when your music is as intricate, passionate and involved as Rest’s, then the apparent dearth of material can be excused, especially when you dive into these deep, dark sonic waters.
The title track kicks us off and while superficially nothing much has changed (Rest remain ostensibly a wholly instrumental post-rock guerrilla outfit), the militant-sounding ‘Operation: Impending Doom’ is an intense journey in a more precarious heart of darkness than the nervy, but occasionally lightness-leavened zone Rest cleared for themselves with their debut. Initially edgy and chugging in a knife-edge Fugazi kinda way, ‘Operation…’ takes an occasional plangent dip while the band re-load the heavy, looming riffage and Johnny reminds us what a phenomenal drummer he is, making like an unholy mutation of John Bonham and Brendan Canty throughout. Before long, the whole band is pitching in and the epic instrumental tidal swell they create breaks all over the rocks and you can breathe at last come the six-minute mark.
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It’s an impressive start, but ultimately only an entrée for the supremely poised ‘Spare A Dime For Comrade Lonely Crippled Cowboy’. Initially doomy and plangent, it screes in on swathes of E-Bow, lonely chiming chords and drums that emanate from the Earth’s very core. Desolate in atmosphere, it gradually morphs into something even more intense, brooding and bloodthirsty than before and we’re at the seven-minute mark before the band finally let go and shift up to second gear and beyond.
Towering, heavier and more unremitting before, Rest have created a raven black beauty with ‘Operation: Impending Doom’. A record that challenges even the likes of Mogwai and Cave-In, its’ terrible majesty will take some beating even in a genre famed for its’ brain-flaying intensity. Way to go.
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