Pelican - City of Echoes

Pelican has been one of the main authorities in the instrumental rock genre for some years now and their new release "City of Echoes" only serves to reassert the commanding sontrol of instruments and songwriting that have helped gather their loyal fan-base. "City of Echoes" is driven by the familiar distorted guitar that drenches most of their other recordings, having become their signature sound. The tone is dense and organic, ebbing between triumphant melodies and warnings of impending doom.

With this album, Pelican has established themselves as masters of their craft. This album contains melodies as memorable as Explosions in the Sky, but the comparisons rightly stop there. This album is an engaging, dense work of mature songcraft. The tempo for most of this album is relatively fast compared to other recent instumental releases by bands such as Mono. They abandon drawn-out cinematic build and stick to songs that are immediately catchy and work to draw the listener into the cycles of guitar-driven melody. This is their strongest work yet showing that this genre still has a lot more to offer and to teach the rest of the rock music scene.
9.2/10 More information on Pelican can be found at www.pelicansong.com and www.hydrahead.com