Band:	God Is An Astronaut
Album:	Ghost Tapes #10
Style:	Post-rock
Release date:	February 12, 2021
A review by:	RaduP

01. Adrift
02. Burial
03. In Flux
04. Spectres
05. Fade
06. Barren Trees
07. Luminous Waves

Can you believe it's been nearly 20 years since God Is An Astronaut's debut?

To be completely honest, I don't know why God Is An Astronaut are featured on this website. Not that I don't like them or disagree with having post-rock featured, especially since I pushed Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Swans to be added as well. And I agree that some of their heavier parts do sound like Russian Circles or Pelican in that "post-metal less as atmospheric sludge but more like heavy post-rock way". But they're not that much heavier than your average post-rock band. Caspian, Explosions In The Sky, If These Trees Could Talk, Yndi Halda or This Will Destroy You can pretty much get as heavy too. That's part of the discussion.

The other part is... the 2000s really were the decade for post-rock. After the 90s spawned the genre and a lot of its classics, it exploded. But in the 2010s and now in the 2020s? Not so much. Looking at charts of the most rated post-rock albums of the 2010s, they're all Swans, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Mogwai albums, as in bands with releases before 2000. God Is An Astronaut barely missed the mark, but they were still champions of the 3rd wave. The End Of The Beginning is still just two years later than Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To The Sky. And yet they didn't manage to retain as much interest as some of their contemporaries like Mono. But they're not the only ones in this situation.

So why did I spend two paragraphs without even mentioning the actual album I'm reviewing? Post-rock isn't the only genre that has an established sound and became stale after a while. But because I'm trying to make sense of Ghost Tapes #10 being such a fantastic record and definitely God Is An Astronaut's best record in a long while, and at the same time me feeling so indifferent towards it. Ironically, it's the album that makes me question their place on a metal website the least, drawing the "heaviest" into heavier post-metal territories, which makes the entire first paragraph pretty hypocritical. I mean, it's not post-metal, but it's the closest I've felt their sound being comfortably defined as such. Maybe that's why I like it so much, but I've heard it before by other bands, and by the same band too.

Despite being noticeably heavier, it still bears all of the markings of a God Is An Astronaut record, which comes with its upsides and downsides. Which means that their urgent and cinematic sound is still on display here, and the way it's crafter here is pretty superb and it makes Ghost Tapes #10 a big pleasure to listen to. The production, songwriting and performance all makes the album very immersive and striking, as you are listening to it. I could say that the melodies are pretty memorable, but not very distinguishable. If an year from now I would suddenly hear any of these melodies in my head, I doubt they would make me think about this album. I think about this album more because it has the best cover art our of all of their albums, than because of its music. Which is the downside that I've been mentioning. God Is An Astronaut were never into long epics with massive build-ups and crescendos, nor were they ever too boldly experimental. Post-rock aficionados might give me an embarrassing schooling for not catching the subtleties, but the music being this beautiful, direct and simple is what lead to its downfall.

But don't worry, I feel the same way about a lot of music. Most death metal blurs together. Most stoner rock blurs together. I guarantee that if you like post-rock, you'll like this. There is absolutely nothing here not to like. It's really inoffensive.