KINGS OF TIME

Magyar Posse's second album is much more in line with traditional post rock, especially when compared to their slightly shythmic, krautrockish debut. This has much more focus on the loud-soft dynamic found throughout standard post rock, yet still undoubtedly manage to be a but above a lot of the generic stuff out there by merit of their exellent compositions and melodies. The band also ends up having a slightly darker sound to it when compared to the ethereal We Will Carry You Over The Mountains, but still is mostly a very pleasant listen.

Immediately, one of the biggest changes I noticed was the increase of vocalisations throughout, with every track other than IV containing some sort of wordless vocal element to it, each time lending itself absolutely prefectly to the music being played. The album also has a far more mysterious feel to it, with the deep red colour, the more ambiguous picture, and the song titles which are nothing more than roman numerals. This definitely adds something to the overall atmosphere of the album, and is a great complement to the more varied nature of the songs, with I being a very slow, calm track, while II adds an absolutely jaw dropping violin that both adds a lot of emotion to hte music, as well as a darker edge to it in parts. It's track III that really sells me on this album however, with an excellent buildup all the way through, with an incredible amount of intensity particularly heightened by the extremely prominent, repetitive drum beat, with the additions of violins bringing a hint of beauty to the extremely dissonant nature of everything else that's going on, before it all transforms into a simply divine section of music. bringing in the vocals as everything moves at a faster pace, all the noise fading away into utter bliss. I do find that the next 2 songs, particularly V, don't have quite the same magic found earlier on in the album, instead being more pleasant than impactful or beautiful, which is thankfully amended greatly in the final 2 tracks, whic end up being incredible in their perfect subtlety, building exquisitely and having some of the best melody in the album. While they don't quite live up to III, they're certainly still more proof that this band has a lot going for them.

Overall, this album is far more complex, technical, and all around more accomplished than their already superb debut, with more variation in each track while maintaining the relative minimalism of post rock. Despite this, I do find the middle portion after III to be somewhat dull and uninspired, whic does take a bit of a toll on the album overall. Even so, this is still an exceptional post rock album by an exceptional band, and I greatly recommend that you check it out, since unlike their debut, this one has enough inspiraiton and amazing high points that it could possibly be enjoyed by those not normally too big on post rock, well, III at the very least.

Best songs: II, III, VII

Weakest songs: IV, V

Verdict: More or less a must listen for fans of post rock, and I'm assuming it could be a reasonable listen for those who don't normally listen to it, although don't expect it to change your view on the genre.