Band:	Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster
Album:	Exegesis
Style:	Post-Rock, Post-metal
Release date:	February 2012
A review by:	BitterCOld

01. Fractal World
02. Exegesis
03. Calligraphy
04. Valis
05. Black Iron Prison
06. Going Out Like Lights On A Switchboard
07. Sungazer
08. Wake

Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster, named after this incident are another in the seemingly ever increasingly crowded field of post-rock/post-metal. Those familiar with my reviews over the past 15 months have seen me refer to the bands of this trend as "SSDD"? Same Shit, Different Dudes. It's a bit of a shame, really, because as far as Exegesis goes, these guys are, well, good.

Exegesis starts out in an underwhelming fashion with the instrumental "Fractal World". Sure it has some moments when the intensity picks up the last 90 seconds, but it's not particularly memorable or noteworthy compared to the competition. A plodding, simple riff that repeats, slowly building as it goes along? You know, SSDD.

I guess it played rope-a-dope, setting up the rest of the album.

Next up is the title track which starts with more clean-toned reverb and delay aided guitar tones, and about a minute along the vocals come in. Wait? What? Holy crap, this dude isn't SCREAMING AT ME MAKING ME WISH I WAS DEAF! No! He sings clean with a nuanced tone that is simultaneously fragile yet strong. Yeah, he's got the goods. As with seemingly every post song under the sun, the intensity builds? and it all clicks. Whereas the prior track had moments, this is a cohesive, consistent piece. Melodic wah'd guitars setting a mood over drum fills? I'm not going to call it a "groove" per se, but the whole thing has this great building jam kind of feel to it that grabbed my attention and immediately set my expectations considerably higher for the rest of the album.

And that cohesive whole of all members moving in the same direction to create a larger gestalt continues for the rest of the album. Some tracks remain instrumental, others feature more of the fantastic vocal work. Softer post-rock builds into intense, distortion pedal fueled crescendos. You know the same I've come to expect in the genre, only better executed. If you have the patience, it has the pay off.

Perhaps it is fatigue of having an endless array of twists on Explosions In The Sky (only with distortion. Or SCREAMING RAWRWHFGH!) sent my way that my reaction to the genre has gone from enthusiasm to ambivalence. The occasional release like this rekindles some of that initial excitement I felt.

While these guys aren't quite up to the level that Dirge, Jesu or A Storm Of Light was on their latest, they are definitely a cut above the other post-it note acts I've reviewed in the last year and change.

Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster? No disaster here. Just good tunes.