Over the years of American music, I am always proud to mention quite the list of bands from Massachusetts, my home state. However, I get to add another band to that list, Beverly, MA experimental post-rock group known as Caspian. This instrumental outfit just released quite the killer album entitled Dust and Disquiet (Triple Crown Records). From start to finish, Caspian puts you on an emotional, yet satisfying, journey. After my first time listening to Dust and Disquiet, I was completely blown away and even embarrassed that I had never heard of this band who is just a few miles away from where I live!

It was extremely hard trying to narrow down my favorite tracks across this pilgrimage of an album. ‘Arcs of Command’ is a perfect example when trying to explain the structure of a post-rock/metal song. The song starts off calm and slowly builds on itself up until the climax of the song, running on all cylinders. Then, they come off the gas pedal just a bit towards the end before a big finish. ‘Echo and Abyss’ is another great example of this as well, except one of the elements that comes in during the build-up is actually some vocals, something I did not expect when hearing this band was instrumental. Having said that, I think the vocals certainly fit for this track. ‘Darkfield’ is yet another prime example of this song structure as the first few seconds of the track sound as if a train is starting and slowly gaining speed of a station. This track also dips into the electronic elements a bit more than the rest of the tracks on the album but it allows for the album to stay fresh all the way through.

Dust and Disquiet is an album that will certainly be in my album of the year internal discussions/battles I am certainly going to have after this great year in music. Caspian has put out one of the few albums in my young life to allow passages where I can bang my head and then follow up with pulling my heartstrings yet there are no vocals or lyrics. This album just does not have a single blemish and will stand up in its genre for years to come. Moving forward, when I mention bands from MA I enjoy, Caspian will make the cut for sure.

9.0/10

TIM LEDIN