Destroy Clocks Crash Onto Modern Experimental Scene With Groundbreaking ‘Tarot’

Destroy Clocks provide a marvelously expansive, dazzling post-metal experience on their 2018 full length Tarot. It’s a story you didn’t know needed told. The release traverses through a broad array of sound, including glimmering atmospherics, thickly percussive presentation, and more meandering, perhaps familiarly broad and drawn out melodic song structure. The different aspects are often presented in conjunction with and/or right on top of one another.

Each element interweaves incredibly well with the others, allowing the band to present a work that transcends possible limitations and becomes something new. This band does not feel like a copy or like they’re running on a gimmick. They have something truly new to share that in the end feels needed. Listening is like discovering you were thirsty by being presented with water and ending up eager for more. The work feels engaging and personal in the midst of its almost cinematic expanse, which adds to its relevance and effectiveness.

Their presentation proves very complex the longer one makes their way through Tarot. There’s barely a let up, although it’s hardly all just blisteringly heavy material. Instead, the band just keeps going and going, seemingly understanding just what turns they should take and when to paint their striking vision.

Their work truly does feel visionary, reliant less, it feels, on one particular element and more pushing the listener with an overall might. The band remains dark and brooding, presenting a mood that must simply be felt. On that broad note, Tarot feels reminiscent of the post-metal band Cult Of Luna – particularly their 2016 collaboration with vocalist Julie Christmas Mariner. Each band strikes out on their own unique path; it’s simply a worthy comparison, as the paths are built using some of the same tools – emotion, atmosphere, and the like. They just go different directions. Destroy Clocks really up the ante of their melodic intensity, for instance. They know how to be brutal but meaningful, painting harsh but inviting huge realities.

Their work in Tarot sits as something for the listener to get lost in. It’s a welcome experience, keeping the listener in touch with the possibilities of music.

5/5 Stars

Check out the band on Facebook, and listen below via Spotify.