DELILUH - Fault Lines LP

Limited "Dinked" edition.

Highly recommended.

180 gram vinyl. Gatefold sleeve.

We've been fans since hearing Oath of Intent and the excellent Beneath The Floor. Same label who brought Crack Cloud to worldwide attention.

Opener "Memorial" is a vast void of Minimal Synth atmospheres that are paced by Kyle Knapp's deadpan, spoken vocals. The lines read more like a poem than anything else and it's a harrowing and uneasy atmosphere. If "Memorial" is one side of this tense coin, "Body and Soul" is the other side.

This instrumental is like nothing we've heard before. Its sounds are hard to decipher but what we can pick apart are incessant piano notes, metallic strings, and earthquake-like booms of bass.

"Credence" or "Ash in the Winds of Reason" are favourite cuts and sit more comfortably in the earlier section of the band's output. That hypnotic guitar lines and steady drum beat. And like with "Body and Soul," we really like the way this group works piano into this song as well.

Single "Amulet" was released over a year ago at this point and there were two versions put out. The latter of the two, the upbeat-by-comparison "Amulet B," ended up being used on the album. The industrial-type percussion is incredibly cool - love the constant booming bassline that keeps the song strung together.

"X-Neighbourhood" brings the energy way down after the past three enthralling songs and is notably static in structure. It is a very slow burn of a song, that's for sure. The changes and growth are gradual and don't appear until the second half of the song.

"Syndicate II" almost jolts you awake on first listen thanks to that aggressive guitar tone. This song is pretty decent, great at points even. The section shortly after the halfway point where there are layered guitars that clash with one another via order vs. chaos is pretty damn rad. The long-winded closer "Mirror of Hope" ends the album in a really serene state that takes Deliluh into Post-Rock territory. The arpeggiator and strings are beautiful and finish out a pretty chaotic and unresting album in an otherwise very beautiful manner.