September 11, 2026 by A.S. Van Dorston

Potential fulfilled on TFATD’s heaviest and most accessible album.

Since recalibrating from an instrumental band to featuring vocals on their fourth album, News from the Invisible World (2023), it’s become increasingly clear that this is a band with massive musical appetites. Like Motorpsycho, their diet is too eclectic to summarize in a nutshell. I hear prog, heavy psych, indie, noise, shoegaze, metal and jazz fusion just for starters. Yet despite the stylistic drift from track to track, their fifth album has a cohesive sound — a result of years of progression and experimentation peaking with their most accessible yet heaviest album yet.

On the last album, Kevin Feazy’s vocals reminded me of both Peter Gabriel and Guy Garvey of Elbow. That’s less apparent this time around, but I would now add Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), probably due to similarity in timbre rather than intentional. The album busts out a chonky doom metal riff on opener “Loungeside” and a slow, lumbering tempo, until the change midway to a soaringingly melodic chorus and a chiming guitar solo. “Shake Hands & Exit” also features a heavy, doomy riff that melts into ethereal beauty. Some might call this a shoegaze-metal hybrid, but it’s more complex than that, with soaring post-Britpop Big Music melodies and maybe a touch of gothy post-punk. This is more apparent with “Somehow,” which not only evokes The Cure, but also pop hooks worthy of some of Robert Smith’s best writing. “The 1234” is noise-punk with the heart of King Crimson, ending with a plaintive jazz-rock guitar solo.

“Superbia” is colorful psychedelia that brings to mind Super Furry Animals when it erupts into a rubbery new wave rhythm and harmonized chorus before changing into another doomy power chord. It matches well with the brilliant cover art by comic book artist (Fables) Mark Buckingham, who has done a few covers for the band. Both “Dream Sequence” and “Thrash” touch on metal and stoner textures with an added veil of dark post-punk atmospherics. The latter gives a nod to Queens of the Stone Age’s robo-rock tempo, which in turn draws from Kosmische motorik chugs from German prog, while “Hypernormalisation” features a guitar solo that blends tones from Tony Iommi and Josh Homme. “Signal Bleed” tops off the album with a sweeping, cinematic closing statement and a crescendo boosted with a massive sounding choir. A nicely dramatic end to probably the band’s best album yet.

It’ll certainly serve as a highly recommended entrypoint for newcomers as well as a satisfying progression for those pleased with their previous album.

RIYL: Motorpsycho, Liminal Sky, The Cure, QOTSA