Album Review: Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving - No Tether

There are no obvious boxes or pigeonholes that Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving can be shoved or squeezed into.

Although there are elements of prog-rock, post-metal and even a few jazzy flourishes here and there, their uniqueness has been their most obvious defining quality.

Ever-ambitious and always atmospheric, No Tether takes its first few natal breaths with the brief, freezing splendour of Sublunar. But it's on the following The Alarmist, easily one of Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving's most heart-stopping tracks, that the band fully grab the listener by the throat, as Ben Greene's insistent drums ratchet up the urgency while Paul Briggs' blistering tremolo guitar whips around like an icy wind through Himalayan peaks. It's the sort of ominous, high tension music that ought to soundtrack a death-defying cliff-hanger sequence. No Tether is a complex work. Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving eschew riffs in favour of variations and it comes across almost like a post-metal version of free jazz in places, particularly on the ghostly Signal Erosion.

It's a full-on experience that lacks some of the occasional intimacy of their earlier works, but its sheer dynamism is a further reason to celebrate Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving as a band unlike any other in Australia.