I did it again, I don’t know how, call it sixth sense or magic witch vibe. I managed to keep an eye on this record for a few months and now that I had the time to review it I found it completely right for these days. So, keep on reading, I’m going to tell you why World Builder by Stillbeing would be a perfect dystopian Armageddon soundtrack.
Stillbeing are based in Texas, and they’re not really new on these virtual pages, they previously called themselves Aegos (and you can find Thorsten’s review here).
Last July they presented to the world their debut as Stillbeing: World Builder, four tracks and 46 minutes of a well balanced mixture of Progressive and Post-Metal with some good outer-world sounds, this is only to give you an idea of what we’re talking about, because there’s obviously more.
So, Armageddon and World Builder? Why this combo you might ask…well as usual I’ve been obsessing over something in these last month, precisely I’ve been obsessing on Good Omens, the amazing book by Gaiman and Pratchett (and the consequently very good series, I should thank my parents for letting me live the same time as Michael Sheen and David Tennant). So, in Good Omens everything revolves around the topic Armageddon, the end of the world, the end of everything. And you wanna know something? World Builder by Stillbeing completely resonates with all of this.
From the heavy rhythms to the lyrics, from the almost oppressive riffs to the struggling vocals, everything from this record makes me imagine a cinematic video about Armageddon and obviously I linked all of this to Good Omens.
Between guest vocals and an overall well thinked execution and care to every sound, World Builder is a really good debut.
We have only four tracks but their length makes up for it, but I wouldn’t have imagined anything different anyway.
“Abandoning Mother” is the opening track, the one that caught my ear and set the mood for the entire work. The first riffs are pachydermic, a heavy Post-Metal. “So we’ll leave this place / we end this now / this day”, I perceived this track as a farewell to our Mother Earth, thanks to the lyrics and thanks to my Armageddon link(!). This one is also my favourite track, I think it sums up pretty well the identity of the band.
“Future Earth” is a little bit darker track, the vocals deliver a struggling feeling, between hope and the end of everything, it all fits the whole concept well.
“Builder of Worlds” is divided into four parts: i) The Nearest Outpost, ii) A Lively Garden, iii) The Great Upheaval, iv) New Knowledge, and it is the more dynamic track of course, with sudden changes of rhythm and mood. We have it all here, hypnotic vocals at the beginning, aggro riffs,even a dreamy/shoegaze bit with a general outer-world feeling.
’’See it to the end’’ closes the record, the final chant towards what will expect us at the end of its listening.
I think this will be for sure one of my favourites of this year, it is a very well done debut album. If you’re in with ominous, atmospheric but also heavy Post-Metal this is for you! And, as I always say, I would really like to see how it would sound live, and I have a pretty good feeling about that.
