Style: post-metal, shoegaze (mixed vocals)
Review by: Jonah
Country: US-AZ
Release date: 14-09-2018
[EDITOR’S NOTE: This review was originally published in the 2018 missed albums issue of The Progressive Subway.]
Every once in a while I stumble upon something seriously beautiful when I’m reviewing albums. I wade through the mediocre and the repetitive albums that I’m bombarded with, and I find a real diamond amongst all the rubbish. This time, that diamond is Holy Fawn’s latest, and what a diamond it is.
I have absolutely never heard anything quite like Holy Fawn. They’ve taken Shoegaze, fused it with atmospheric post-metal, and made something just extraordinary. The fusion of aural textures that suddenly and dramatically shift from quiet to loud to lovely to discordant, it’s just mind-blowing. The vocals shift back and forth between a float-y, airy tenor to some of the harshest high-shrieks I’ve heard in quite a while, and it’s beautiful. Everything about this album is beautiful, I cannot stress that enough.
I’m not always the biggest Post fan, often because I find that the songs take a tad too long to really get anywhere. Holy Fawn never has that problem. Every single moment of every song is enormously engaging, whether due to the gorgeous atmosphere or the absolute sonic assault. I struggle to even applaud any particular part of this album’s composition or performance because it all just feels so divine and perfectly put together. If I had any complaint, it’s that maybe, just maybe the album is a tad too long, but that’s trivial when the music is this gorgeous.
I cannot recommend Death Spells enough, regardless of whether you’re a fan of Post-Metal, or anything really, please listen to this album. It’s innovative, it’s beautiful, and I absolutely cannot wait to see what else Holy Fawn has in store for us.
Recommended tracks: Dark Stone, Drag Me into the Woods, Take Me With You
Recommended for fans of: Good music (????????)
Final verdict: 9/10
EDITOR’S NOTE: By now, Holy Fawn has massively outgrown this blog’s listener criteria, having 50k monthly listeners on spotify as of December 2020. However, Death Spells was reviewed during an era where they met our <10k listener criteria, therefore the review has been archived for continuity purposes (also because we predicted a stellar band before they got huge 😉 )
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | RYM page
Label: Independent
Holy Fawn is:
– Ryan Osterman (vocals, guitars)
– Evan Phelps (guitars)
– Austin Reinholz (drums)
– Alexander Rieth (bass)
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