Review: Show Me a Dinosaur – Plantgazer

Style: Blackgaze/Post-Rock (Mixed vocals)
Review by: Chris
Country: Russia
Release date: December 4th, 2020

Sometimes people have discussions about sports careers that peaked too fast to achieve something greater, or came too early in the timeline to be completely in control of their league, but so undeniably great that they influence a generation of players. Blackgaze as a genre I think has found itself in this kind of conversation ever since it began appearing post Deafheaven‘s album Sunbather. Like wildfire a scene burgeoned up after that album, yet it never seemed to reach anything greater than that first peak of Sunbather. Varying degrees of bands and albums have come since which obviously grab inspiration from Sunbather. They all wallow in that liminal space of not feeling original despite the band’s intentions; it’s a product of one album so succinctly defining and summing up a genre right at the top. Obviously I’m exaggerating, but it’s a relative truth of blackgaze: it often feels like a clone-esque attempt at something else.

I won’t lie and say Plantgazer by Russia-based Show Me a Dinosaur bucks that expectation or trend. The first hits of the album in “Sunflower” feel like a moment of brief difference with their uplifting notes, and hints towards a more positive spin than usual. Soon after though, the vocals hit and my mind can’t help but settle into the “ah…this sounds like Deafheaven” territory. I really don’t want to hark on that too much, and so I will avoid name dropping any more bands from here on out, but it really is an unavoidable thing with this album.

After “Sunflower” gives that brief positive feeling, it does eventually fall into that nostalgic, lonely feeling often associated with the genre. “Marsh”, the next track on the album, spends a good amount of time in the beginning with a post-rock exploration and build, before releasing itself into a more laidback wall of sound to back the reintroduction of the screaming vocals instead of the blast-heavy normally seen employed. “Marsh” does feature one of the pleasant surprises of the album with a really nice transition into a clean vocal gang-vocal style outro. It really is a nice feeling of being lifted up from the loneliness the rest of the song evokes, and so it lands exceedingly well. “Red River”, the epic of the album, does a similar post-rock build to the inevitable explosion, though this introduces the first full frantic blasting style wall of sound on the album, before going into another brief post detour on the way to another rollercoaster climb and fall. The lower post-rock energy of “Marsh” is most offset by either “Unsaid I” or “Hum”, which both take themselves to much more aggressive measures in their runtime, though I found both a bit lacking after the length and journey of “Red River” before them.

I quite like the vocals on this album in both the harsh and clean sections. The harsh vocals are about as exact on the nose for the genre as you could order, though I do appreciate they did not feel the need to be ever present, instead knowing there are times the instruments get the point across on their own well enough. The couple of clean vocal sections serve as more unique moments on the album, and thus end up as some of my favorite parts over the whole runtime. The drums, guitars, and bass all do their jobs well in their respective lanes, often times matching what the others are doing in such a manner that it feels like a unit of sound rather than individual parts attempting to mesh. This helps to give that wall-of-sound feeling and letting the album wash over you, so kudos for that.

I’d say this lands on the upper spectrum of blackgaze that comes across me these days. I most definitely enjoyed this album start to finish, but like most things in this space, I feel people will either completely engross in it or just hand wave it away as not as good as their favorite blackgaze band, or not kvlt enough, or something along those lines. It’s not really anything new or overly unique, but it does what it wants to do well, and definitely captures the feeling they put on their bandcamp as inspiration for the album. Plantgazer is a great album to just sit quietly, contemplate life, and stare at your houseplants in wonder.

Recommended tracks: Marsh, Red River, Hum
Recommended for fans of: Alcest, Ghost Bath, Deafheaven
Final verdict: 7/10

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

Label: Elusive Sound – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook

Show Me a Dinosaur is:
– Artem Selyugin (guitar, vocals)
– Pavel Volkov (guitars)
– Philip Chernonog (bass, vocals)
– Daniel Kourdakov (drums)