Review: The Salt Pale Collective – A Body That Could Pass Through Stones and Trees

Style: Post-Metal, Doom Metal, IDM (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: The Ocean, Primitive Man, Cult of Luna, Dvne
Review by: Cooper
Country: United Kingdom
Release date: 25 August, 2023

In a genre such as post-metal where experimentation is often lauded, The Salt Pale Collective‘s debut offering, A Body That Could Pass Through Stones and Trees, proves that sticking to the tried and truly refined can be equally engrossing. By taking cues from nearly all edges of the realm of post/doom/sludge metal and then refining those influences into infinitely listenable and sleek slabs of metal grandeur, TSPC have ensured that I’ll be listening to these songs whenever I need my post-metal fix. Add to that the companion piece The Crimson Queen Has No Tongue, which I’ll also be reviewing, and you’ve got a post-metal feast for the ages.

The album opens with intro track “Tria Prima,” setting the tone with harsh synth noise and spoken word samples; immediately, the listener is transported to a world of grit and muck, so much so that when the chanting vocals move in afterwards in all their earnestness, the juxtaposition is downright startling. And with the listener thrown off balance, The Collective seizes the opportunity, pummeling the listener with pounding drums, hefty bass, and guitars meaty enough to sink your teeth into. The production quality here is top notch stuff, enough so to make any moment on this album interesting purely for its sonic textures. “Tria Prima” flows directly into track two, “The Great Work”, and it is here where TSPC define their core sound, and boy is it heavy.

Along with the gorgeously produced onslaught of guitar, bass, synth, drums, and sax established on the opener come some of the filthiest harsh vocals I’ve heard all year. They are, simply put, perfect for the genre, low enough to blend in with the instruments as texture when necessary but powerful and enunciated enough to carry pivotal music moments single handedly. And when the melodic clean vocals enter later, the combination of both styles is utterly decadent. After about a dozen listens, I still find myself joining in during these moments on tracks like “Exploding Triangles” and “Sermon of the Edacious Reverent”. Another subtle – but ultimately important – element to the TSPC sound is their playful use of vocal effects. The changes made are minute, often just a little warble added here or a quick reversal of a phrase there, but the result is felt strongly. So much so in fact, that I didn’t like them at first, feeling they were cheesy and distracting. But as I listened more, drawn back by damn near everything else, they grew on me, becoming just another element of texture in the sonic onslaught.

Because the album is meant to be listened to as one large song (with the band going so far as to provide that single unbroken experience via Bandcamp), the quality of some individual tracks is difficult to gauge. For instance, tracks “Tria Prima” and “The Metabaron”, while great in league with their brethren, are not meant to be heard alone. The former is an intro track, as we have already discussed, and the latter is an ambient synth interlude that, despite lasting as long as any other song on the album, doesn’t accomplish much. While enjoyable as an album, these songs are necessary and extremely beneficial for the album’s flow, but as standalone tracks, which I choose to judge them as based on their runtime, they are kinda boring. Thankfully, the whole album is only forty-three minutes so complete listens aren’t exactly a chore.

Like I said in the intro, if you’re at all familiar with the realm of post/doom/sludge metal then most of what you hear on this album will be friendly territory. As I listened, I was consistently reminded of The Ocean, Cult of Luna, and Dvne, three bands I’m sure that any post-metal fan is presently aware of. However, instead of simply imitating their influences, The Salt Pale Collective takes the elements that made their influences so great and refines them. As I have already said, these tracks are infinitely listenable, and I have found myself spinning this album more than any other I’ve reviewed. For fans of post-metal, A Body That Could Pass Through Stones and Trees is essential listening.

If you liked what you heard, be sure to also check out my review of this album’s companion EP, The Crimson Queen Has No Tongue.

Recommended tracks: The Great Work, Exploding Triangles, Sermon of the Edacious Reverent
You may also like: Nebulae Come Sweet, Ergo I Exist, LLNN
Final verdict: 8.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page

Label: Independent

The Salt Pale Collective is:
– Barney Hodges (Sax)
– Annina Melissa, Rhys McCubbin, Nick Yule, Richard Parsons (Vocals)
– Neil Adamson, Dan Thornton (Textures)
– Sara and Paul Mac (Chants)
– Alan, Baz, Ian, Lauren, Mark, Marco, Matt, Muckrel, Pete, Steve, Smellyot, Steven R, Nathaniel Williams (Voices)
– Ethan Hutchinson, Ash Cook, Abigail Dixon, Liam Hesslewood, Decadebridge and Al Harris.