Album Review: In A House Of Heartbeats - Divination of Dreams
Reviewed by Matthew Williams
As we all stride into the new year, full of hopes and dreams, I step back to a genre that has grown on me more over the past few years. The explosion of the instrumental post-rock/post-metal scene has made me seek out new bands and experiences, with Essex trio In a House of Heartbeats the first to tempt me with their album “Divination of Dreams”
It is an explosion of soundscapes that are designed and created to push your boundaries whilst simultaneously putting a huge smile on your face. There is a section around the midway point of the huge opening track called “In a Perpetual State of Wonder” which left me open mouthed as it’s exhilarating before they push back adding drama and tension by slowing it down to reel you back in.
It’s a full-on aural assault, combining post-rock, with elements on doom and goth, that will leave many nodding their heads in approval. There’s no let up either, as “Cambion” gently weaves its magical spell in a nightmarish way leaving you wanting and expecting more. They hit hard and there’s a huge bass line in the third sector of the track that gets me each time I hear it.
They go for a shorter track next, “Parasomniac” which has a soft-spoken word commentary to accompany the music, which feels like an astronaut speaking when he’s blasting into space, and it’s followed by the assured calmness of “Oneiromancy for Beginners” which is partly where the album title comes from. It puts you into a dream like state and makes you stop and think whilst you listen to their compositions.
They have been helped along their journey by Cul of Luna’s Magnus Lindberg, who handled the mastering of the album, and he manages to bring out their palatial and striking musical structures, with “A Head Full of Ghosts” and “Drift Into Sleep” adding more weight to their already impressive array of tracks. The former is a long, drawn-out arrangement that has many facets to it and then you get pulled back by the tick tock sounds and lyrics on the latter, yet it all fits the context of the album beautifully.
They finish with another song attached to the dream narrative, “Perchance to Dream” that ties in exquisitely and wraps up on album that should see the trio gain many new admirers and I for one cannot wait to hear this album live at some point, as it’s a fascinating and absorbing album that has really captured my imagination.
