Band:	Glassing
Album:	Twin Dream
Style:	Post-Hardcore, Atmospheric black metal
Release date:	November 2021

01. Spire
02. Burden
03. Absolute Virtue
04. Faint
05. Twin Dream
06. Godless Night
07. Doppler
08. Among The Stars
09. Where Everything Is Still
10. True North
11. At Long Last

The fusion of black metal and hardcore typically produces some pretty sinister, punishing results. But every now and then, it can result in something fairly unique and transcendental. Something like Glassing.

Twin Dream is the third full length effort from Glassing, a sonically diverse trio from Austin, Texas. The band's brand of blackened hardcore can certainly bring its share of hard-hitting, thundering moments. Here a pounding, rhythmic sound dominates, replete with heavy bass, impressive, chaotic drumming, and piercing shrieks somewhat reminiscent of those you might hear out of Lord Mantis. It can be surprisingly groovy at points too, descending into an almost Converge-esque, mathcore-like jamming, especially as on the imposing "Burden".

But the appeal of Twin Dream really shines through in its melodic undercurrents, likely indicative of a post metal or shoegaze influence (probably both). There are many moments throughout the album where Glassing pull back from their banging-core raging to reveal a much more restrained, atmospheric aspect of their sound palette that really helps to vault their music into much more sublime, majestic territory. In some ways even more engaging than Glassing's rip-roaring hardcore sound, these elements are pleasantly varied in their delivery too, ranging from the airy dronescapes of a track like "Godless Night" to the eerily hypnotic, bass - driven delivery on Twin Dream's titular track.

With Twin Dream, Glassing prove themselves as being interested in the hardcore/black metal combination for far more than the dirty, menacing auras of each genre. There's plenty of pummeling to go around here, sure, but Glassing are far from a band such as Hexis or Indian, merely interested in spewing bile at the listener. Clearly looking to offer up a more compelling and dynamic listening experience, with pleasantly diverse songwriting and an excellently crisp sense of production to boot, here Glassing successfully infuse their love of post, gaze, and ambient into their intimidating bangers, at no compromise whatsoever to their sense of heaviness. A win on just about every front, Twin Dream offers a truly compelling listening experience that will be keeping Glassing fairly high on my radar for the foreseeable future.