A Burning Light

Album Review

If bands like Neurosis, Isis and Cult of Luna represent the heavier, more aggressive contingent of epic post-metal bands active in the mid-00s, the Autumn Project join the ranks of Mogwai and Godspeed You Black Emperor! in what might as well be sub-labeled "low impact" metal-gaze. On their third release, 2006's entirely instrumental A Burning Light, the Des Moines, IA natives unleash drawn-out epics like "At the Feet of Sleeping Giants" and "We Cast These Shadows," that spend most of their 14- and 17-minute lengths droning along through patience-testing atmospheric build-ups and let-downs; only producing temporary bursts of heavy rock catharsis in their mid-sections. "Between the Smoke and Mirrors," the disc's only candidate for all-rock, non-prog efficiency, feels like an untethered snippet by comparison, and it's arguably on the remaining two numbers — the rather pretentiously named "Across Mountain Tops to Broken Bridges" and the concluding title track — that the Autumn Project achieve their most personalized results. Although, even these rely on previous exploits, such as the work of Holland's 35007, because of their shimmering, fluid grooves. In sum, there's not much that one would consider groundbreaking in A Burning Light, but that's not to say that the Autumn Project aren't quite adept at what they do, and capable of providing some solid metal-gaze entertainment to enthusiasts of the genre.