Red Sparowes
The Fear is Excruciating, But Therein Lies the Answer
Sargent House
06 April 2010

What they’re saying
Earlier this week, LA post-rock collective Red Sparowes posted a MySpace blog about their stupidly-titled forthcoming third album.

“There has never been as pronounced of a leap in style and scope as with Red Sparowes’ latest offering. The Fear is Excruciating, But Therein Lies the Answer maintains their layered arrangements and swirling amplified crescendos, Americana noir soundscapes (punctuated by the extended pedal steel on ‘In Every Mind’), and gloriously triumphant melodies (‘Giving Birth to Imagined Saviors’). Earlier records focused on the larger scope of the album, but the new album is song-centered, with the individual tracks harboring stronger independent identities. And where previous endeavors found the band propelled by enormous walls of sound, they now temper their monolithic progressions with distinct passages of separated and soft-spoken instrumentation. Red Sparowes were suspiciously absent from the playing field over the last three years, and now it’s apparent that they were busy drafting the grandest statement and finest achievement of their existence.

“Red Sparowes’ latest offering, The Fear is Excruciating, But Therein Lies the Answer, began with the larger existential pondering of truth, faith, order, causality, and the innate demand for an understanding of the larger world around us. While Red Sparowes’ majesty is hardly in need of story, the provision of the larger metaphor yields a heightened depth and gravity to their work.”

We like Red Sparowes as much as the next man, but guys, c’mon – pretentious, much?

Thrash Hits verdict
Despite all their wordy aspirations, the feverishly dense audio porn of Red Sparowes does give the band a little bit of leeway when it comes to self-satisfaction. It’ll have been three and a half years though between this and their last record, 2006’s Every Red Heart Shines Towards The Red Sun, so expectations are running among fans that the band will have crafted something with some serious heft to it.

It will, however, also be their first abum without Neurosis‘ visual effects guru, Josh Graham, on guitar duties. Whether or not losing such a key member of Red Sparowes creative core will drastically alter the band’s take on post-metal remains to be seen – in either case, it’s certainly increased the likelihood that The Fear… will sound contrary to any of our expectations.

Watch the teaser trailer Red Sparowes made for their new album

Red Sparrowes – The Fear Is Excruciating, But Therein Lies the Answer tracklisting
Truths Arise
In Illusions of Order
A Hail of Bombs
Giving Birth to Imagined Saviors
A Swarm
In Every Mind
A Mutiny
As Each End Looms and Subsides