“Drown every mountain under the sea if you please.”
Spotlights are proud adherents to the “doom-gaze” sound, an approach to rock music combining the polar opposites of glittery ambience and gnarly heaviness. Doom-gaze genre staples include The Angelic Process, Planning for Burial, and Jesu, andsome contemporaries are Grivo and Holy Fawn, but it’s a nice genre tag as there’s so many ways to be “doom”, and even more ways to “gaze”. And nobody does it quite like Spotlights – undoubtedly taking influence from doom metal, their slow crushing riffs are worked into direct, alternative rock-like songs. Alchemy For The Dead is their new album, on which they tweak some significant parts of their established formula, resulting in a record that isn’t exactly what fans will expect.
First, a career retrospective. Their very first track was recorded way back in 2009, but didn’t see the light of Bandcamp until 2013. Next, Spotlights put out their first proper EP, Demonstration, where they considered different directions to take the project. The first track is what you would now call a ‘classic’ Spotlights song, but two (proudly) Mogwai-esque post rock instrumentals follow, and the final track is like an atmospheric Devin Townsend B-side. The next significant release was Tidals (considered either an LP or an EP, depending on where you look) which dispensed with all this dithering and established their home-sound: simple, yet dynamic songs with thick guitars and hazy atmospheres. Now with increased confidence in their vocals, they became one of the most accessible bands in the doom-gaze lane. The two following LPs, Seismic and Love & Decay, took turns to emphasise the melodic and post-metal components, respectively. Just as the pandemic began, they dropped the We Are All Atomic EP, a suite in four parts that raised the possibility of prog sensibilities creeping into their sound. All these releases make Spotlights a storied, prolific band, in an era where most band’s albums seem to release further and further apart.
Their fourth album Alchemy For The Dead now becomes their next chapter. It’s defining feature is a marked departure from the established shoegaze aspect of their sound. Although they have some effects on them, the vocals no longer wreathe entire tracks in a chorus of clouds, which was the primary vehicle for Spotlights’ walls of sound. All the rhythms now sound closer, and not at all laid back like before. When different parts align for song climaxes, more “normal” levels of sound layering are reached. But most interestingly, their dreamy songwriting approach is still present, so Alchemy For The Dead remains familiar.
The two singles “Sunset Burial” and “Algorithmic” demonstrate the new sound. There are plenty of quiet verses and build-ups, particularly on the six and a half minute “Sunset Burial”. The following “Algorithmic” is the more successful single, hitting its stride in the last, stunningly heavy minute. Both of these tracks are led by their straightforward rhythms in a certain Nine Inch Nails way, as if they were written from the drums upwards. This rhythmic focus is aspect is a defining feature of most of the tracks from Alchemy For The Dead. On “Repeat the Silence” and “False Gods”, whose the off-kilter beats are sustained throughout. One’s attention is drawn to the beats in part due to the simple melodies the band employs, but the dry production also works to pull you deeply into these rhythms.
And whilst the sound is drier, there are plenty of engrossing sounds. The title track is Spotlights’ take on the acoustic epic, mixing mellotron with clicky beats, culminating with the record’s titanic ending. As usual, Spotlights use plenty of keyboard, most successfully on the excellent “Crawling Toward The Light” with its catchy string leads in the choruses. The marimba-like key sound that gave Seismic its defining texture only briefly returns on Alchemy For The Dead for the first track – perhaps a nod towards the new sonic approach that this record has adopted.
Instead of relying on the nautical weight of reverb, Alchemy For The Dead achieves its “gaze” sound through tidy, effective songwriting. The dry, tighter sound that comes with this is true to the recording environment (the band’s basement). This might be a sonic shock to some fans, as many listeners have been coming to Spotlights for hazy reveries. Regardless of your response to the somewhat new sound, the record has consistently strong songwriting, with gratifying moments on each track and some of the most “fun” songs the band has penned to date.
8/10
Alchemy For The Dead releases on the 28th April via Ipecac Recordings, and its pre-order links can be found here. Spotlights are currently touring the US extensively over the next two months, the dates for which can be found here.