They’re pitched as being for fans of Catherine Wheel, Alcest, Deftones, The Cure, Kitchens of Distinction, and Smashing Pumpkins, but the album’s opening track and lead single, ‘Pendulums’, while boasting a Curesque flanged bass hints at a spiker post-punk vibe and hints at The Danse Society. The verses are object lessons in moody atmosphere, while the choruses burst into waves of driving guitar.
The slower ‘Smouldering Amber’ is wistful, but is still less shoegaze than an amalgamation of grunge and goth, and demonstrates the band’s capacity for songs that are cerebrally evocative and still elicit a physical response, even if it is a lumbering mosh or head bob. And while I appreciate some deplore contemporary music journalism for its lethargy and endless listing of sounds-like bands, The God Machine and 8-Storey Window make for meritorious touchstones here.
Nostalgist show a close attention to detail, and balance crisp tones which allow minutiae like complex cymbal-work to cut through soft washes of hazy, chorused guitars. When the overdrive kicks in, it’s a thick, dirty tone with a metallic edge. The contrast and texture is very much a focus, and it’s executed effectively. ‘Threshed at Dusk, Winnowed at Dawn’ and closer ‘Texture’ lean into poppier territory, but Asa Eisenhardt’s baritone-registering vocals keep things on the dark side while the big, gritty guitars on the latter contribute some weight to the threatening levity.
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