01. Plague Dancer
02. Åska [feat. Author & Punisher]
03. Glitching Prisms [feat. Brandon Boyd]
04. Desire To Feel Nothing
05. Crystal X
06. Slow Dose [feat. Anthony Green]
07. Phoenix V: Invocation
Night Verses concluded Part 1 of Every Sound Has A Color In The Valley Of Night last year with a track that was uncharacteristically soft and introspective; Part 2 opens with a sonic barrage, but ultimately picks up where Part 1 left off more than you might expect.
Five years after the resounding success that was From The Gallery Of Sleep, their first record without a vocalist, Night Verses returned with a double album, albeit one that was released in two parts. Part 1 of Every Sound Has A Color In The Valley Of Night (not the punchiest of titles) seemed to prioritize heaviness to a slightly higher degree than the preceding album, but its closing song, “Séance” (featuring Tool’s Justin Chancellor) was far more muted than the rest of the tracklist. In some ways, Part 2 represents the inverse of the first half of this double album.
It’s a record that really flies out of the gate; “Plague Dancer” immediately opens the album with frenetic drumming, gnarly technical riffs, a flurry of rapidly interchanging segments, and some pulverizing djent grooves. It does go more towards the dainty math rock end of Nick DePirro’s guitarwork during the midsection, but on the whole it’s quite an intense opening gambit. However, it’s a level of intensity that is rarely reprised across the remainder of Part 2; the following songs are by no means devoid of heaviness (“Desire To Feel Nothing” intersperses some massive crunching amidst its otherwise understated, atmospheric soundscapes), but Every Sound Has A Color In The Valley Of Night: Part 2 does not prioritize said heaviness.
Something else that it’s not devoid of is the presence of vocals; Night Verses haven’t had an about turn and hired a singer, but they have dabbled with guest features this time around. The most striking name involved is Brandon Boyd of Incubus (US-CA), whose distinctive voice slots nicely into the dreamy soundscapes of “Glitching Prisms”, shifting between his full-voiced nasal tone and a hushed, gentle approach. The other vocalist appearing here is Anthony Green (Circa Survive, Saosin and more), and his signature high-pitched post-hardcore voice smoothly swims in the understated, trippy electronics-laden “Slow Dose”. One last guest on Part 2 is Author & Punisher (aka Tristan Shone) on “Åska”; the album promo doesn’t specify his contribution, but given noisy electronics and unusual mechanical distortion that appear specifically on this song (a pounding tom drum-driven build that moves into a segment that pairs said gnarly distortion with twinkling clean guitar noodling), I assume Shone brought some of his homemade instruments to the song.
With its de-emphasis on heaviness, Every Sound Has A Color In The Valley Of Night: Part 2 is a more dynamic album than its predecessor; it’s already been mentioned that the two songs with vocalists are on the softer and more experimental (for the band) side, but the instrumental tracks have their own quirks. “Crystal X” has some very hectic drumming throughout, but while a similar song on Part 1 would likely have descended into huge-sounding heaviness, the guitars remain restrained, opting for either clean tones or more understated distortion. The album’s closing track, “Phoenix V: Invocation”, is nearly twice as long as the next longest on the record, but dedicates a majority of its running time to the kind of massive djent destruction that is not really encountered on the album with reliability outside of its opening song. This is in contrast to “Séance” from Part 1, and it also calls back to that track by featuring tabla, which break up the carnage in a very quiet segment halfway through the song.
Every Sound Has A Color In The Valley Of Night functions well as a tale of two halves, halves that overlap in sound and have parallels to one another while each focusing more on one of the two ends of Night Verses’ range. Both records are very enjoyable in isolation, and Part 2 might outdo the first half just due to its greater diversity and ambition, but as a whole, Every Sound Has A Color In The Valley Of Night further cements Night Verses as one of the standout acts in instrumental metal today.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 8 |
| Originality: | 7 |
| Production: | 8 |
 | Written on 13.03.2024 by Hey chief let’s talk why not |