THE EXTENT OF DAMAGE

Battlestations continue their sad, melancholy, and hauntingly beautiful style of post-rock on this latest album of theirs. Generously made available on a pay-what-you-want basis via their bandcamp, it is structurally extremely similar to their previous albums, with a marked tendency towards longer compositions with one briefer piece rounding things out, but if (like many post-rock bands) Battlestations could be accused of following a formula, at least they seem to have put together a reasonably compelling formula, and the coldly pessimistic atmosphere they evoke beats out even the legendarily mopey Godspeed You Black Emperor! for sheer hopelessness. Those averse to post-rock in general probably won't be won over by it, but those who like a little Silver Mt. Zion in their step would be well-advised to look into this one.