Rest: I hold the Wolf

Cork instrumental quartet Rest are an unruly beast. Their long-awaited second album I Hold The Wolf is a complex and sprawling collection of eight songs sure to please both long-time fans (who have waited almost a decade for another full-length offering) and newcomers.
Flirting with virtually every rock sub-culture imaginable, the foursome fuse progressive with classic and math rock – and even throw in some black metal into the pot (‘Descent With Modification’). By the time the grandiose and imaginative affair is finished your speakers will be a quivering wreck. Not an easy album to digest in single sitting (or indeed, five or six), I Hold The Wolf is an ambitious, at times bombastic offering. Highlights include the Sikth-y, hypnotic opening track ‘Babylon – Constructing The Cosmos’ and the sci-fi-tinged ‘Scaradh,’ which starts with odd, B-Movie synths before mutating into a groove-laden, metal-infused monster. But the star of the show is ‘Sol - Luna - Astra’ which stands as their best piece of music to date. A tale of two halves, the song lures us in with some sweetly sinister melancholy, before bludgeoning the listener over the head with some blood-thirsty riffs, and the pacing throughout is perfect.
While there is the hint of a formula (the calm intro, corrosive mid-section and composed coda trick gets slightly over-played), the sheer scope of their soundscapes is hugely impressive.