DIVINO AFFLANTE SPIRITU

Brazil has never been a mecca for the Post-rock genre, yet the band Brazilian based Labirinto continues to make an influence on the Brazilian prog scene by making post rock. The band formed in 2003 and have released several EPs and 3 full length studio albums. Their 3rd album is called "Divino Afflante Spiritu" and was released in February 2019. The band in its current line up consists of 3 guitarists (one of which also shares keyboard duties), a bassist, a percussionist and a drummer. This album consists of 7 tracks and a total run time of just over 35 minutes, track times running between :51 and 7:39.

The album starts off with "Agnus Dei" which is the only track that features vocals, specifically from Elaine Campos. The track starts off dark and quickly turns heavy with a excellent drum pattern that spurs on more intensity. At 2 minutes, guitars continue with a wall of sound style drone while the drums and bass regenerate intensity again. Campos' vocals start about a minute later, and, I will warn you, are dirty black metal style vocals. After this dramatic beginning, the last thing I wanted to hear was screeching vocals, so thank goodness there are no more vocals on this album.

"Penitencia" starts off with a clanging bell and then bursts into a sudden barrage of guitars playing an intense riff before going into the dark melody. Again, as on the last track, the drums are quite active and that is a giant plus with this music. Also consistant with the last track, is the heaviness, so far the band has a similar dark and heavy sound to Pelican, but with a less plodding style. Synths are quite well utilized here, continuing the dark, heavy sound. Feedback flows into the next track "Eleh Ha Devarim" and then the wall of guitars crash in on you again with another heavy churning riff. At 2:30, the music moves to another heavy and chunky riff. This time things are more chaotic for a while, but it returns to the original riff.

"Demiurge" manages to break the 6 minute mark. The track begins in a more experimental style at first and then takes a quieter approach in the beginning, but instead of slowly increasing, it quickly and suddenly gets heavy. There is a section where it sort of meanders while stewing in its heaviness like it is trying to decide where to go, then the dark synths kick in taking the dark melody for a while. After that, the music gets really thick and heavy, churning along while the drums go wild, then returning to the original theme. Then the music fades. The short "Vigilia" comes next with spooky and atmospheric processed female vocals and increasing drones.

The sound then flows into "Asherdu" by way of feedback and more churning dark guitar riffs and crazy drums. This one is more of a plodding track with a slow rhythm. At 3 minutes, there is finally a reprieve from the noise as things quiet down for a short melodic interlude with the guitars, but after a minute, it returns to loud guitars again. The last track is the 7+ minute title track. This is another slow, plodding track, again with heavy and dark guitars creating another wall of heaviness. Before 3 minutes, things suddenly go atmospheric with subdued spoken vocals and things actually stay quiet and build in intensity over a longer period. Overall, however, the sound is similar to the other tracks.

The music is definitely post rock, but it is also metallic and heavy, staying on the dark side with very little dynamic involved. This is great music for those that love the heavy post rock sound of "Pelican" or even maybe lovers of Black Metal, as long as it is mostly instrumental. To me, its okay at first, but I find myself crying out for more dynamics and variation in the overall sound. There are very few instances of this. Post rock many times relies on dynamics to build their music, but there is little of that here, the best instance of this is on the title track. I'm not saying that all post rock has to follow this formula, in fact, I would rather they don't, but that they use dynamics in new and unique ways like the better post rock bands do. Some will find this music appealing, but the heaviness is mostly unrelenting. In the meantime, I give it 3 stars.