Jodis' second album finds the trio of Aaron Turner,
James Plotkin, and Tim Wyskida continuing to explore a sonic territory that feels as derived (symbolically and sonically) from the burned-out giants on the cover of
Codeine's
Frigid Stars LP as it does the avant-garde metal that the individual players have made their names with over the years. With the slow, stern, but serene tones of "Broken Ground" setting a sense of contemplative avant metal from the start, Turner's vocals suddenly adding heavily reverbed ghostly deliverance from above like a burned and scarred angel after the apocalypse,
Black Curtain is if nothing else the sound of enervation and implied loss. "Red Bough," with its drawn-out instrumental ending, is one moment of many where even the comfort of Turner's voice is removed, leaving everything feeling stripped to the skin. "Silent Temple" might be the most perfect title on the album -- if
Black Curtain is more of an accurate read, then while not being silent there's a sense of the emptied and focused even as the stately riff and steady lyric move forward. But the echoed chant loop at the end of "Awful Feast" might be the strongest musical moment, a little point of difference where guitars are set aside for the rhythmic impact of voice -- and which makes the epic crash that suddenly starts the immediately following "Beggar's Hand" all the stronger. ~ Ned Raggett