Band:	Mountaineer
Album:	Dawn And All That Follows
Style:	Shoegaze, Doom metal, Post-metal
Release date:	July 2024
A review by:	AndyMetalFreak

01. Cradlesong
02. Hypnos
03. Prism
04. Dawn And All That Follows
05. Testimonial
06. You Will Always Be One Of Us
07. Dark Passenger
08. Parallels

Can the Mountaineer really tell us what lies at Dawn And All That Follows through post-metal and shoegaze?

Mountaineer, established by Clayton Bartholomew (guitars) and Miguel Meza (vocalist) in US 2015. The band's style is primarily post-metal based, with doom and shoegaze. In 2017, the band released the full-length debut Sirens & Slumber, following that the band introduced drummer Patrick Spain to the fold and the trio went on to release their sophomore Passages. Shortly after, two additional guitarists in Isaac Rigler and Forrest Harvey, and bassist Dillon Variz joined the ranks, transforming the trio into a six-man line-up who would then go on to release two albums in Bloodletting and Giving Up The Ghost. This now brings us up to date, in which we see the same line-up return after 2 years to present the band's 5th release to date, Dawn And All That Follows.

So what kind of mountain has Mountaineer managed to scale this time? Well, "Cradlesong" sets things off with a gentle acoustic guitar melody before Miguel Meza steps into gear with his passionately performed, ethereal clean singing vocals, once again proving his ability of being an exceptional all-round vocalist. There's nothing all that out of the ordinary on this opening track instrumentally, it generally progresses from a soft shoegaze style to a heavier post-metal style much as it was with previous releases, that's until after the mid-way point in which a gradual post-metal build-up leads to a great guitar lead before the song gently flows into the second track "Hypnos". This following song continues in more-or-less the same musical style, meaning in the form of soft tranquil shoegaze and heavier post-metal, with the vocals varying in range and style to compliment each aspect of the instrumentation. However, these two main musical styles seem to alternate at a more regular rate this time.

The first two songs obviously give a strong indication as of what lies ahead, and of course, it continues mostly in a post-metal fashion offering elements of shoegaze and doomgaze, the main differentiating factor being how the mood sets each time the genre alternates between the other. However, this album does contain a few surprise elements along the way, "Dark Passenger" being an example. This song stands out slightly from the rest as it often ventures into alternative metal territory; the vocals even have a distorting grunge effect, particularly from its memorable chorus, so not only does it offer a glimpse into the alternative 90s, but also combines those elements with 00s post-metal and sludge. Let's not forget what for me is the stand-out song, "Dawn and All That Follows" (which also happens to be the longest featured at just shy of 8 minutes). This contains some of the band's best songwriting to date from beautiful sweeping melancholic leads and acoustic strings, to mesmerizing soft clean singing, that erupts into harsh passionate shouts. The song also features some of the finest post-metal-cum-sludge you'll hear this year in the way it hypnotically builds-up.

Overall, I feel Dawn And All That Follows could easily be regarded as Mountaineer's best release yet, but it still just falls short in some areas. For one, I feel the songwriting does end up becoming too repetitive in certain areas, and there are occasions where I'm excepting the build-ups to lead to something more memorable. However, I feel the performance each individual brings outweighs the songwriting itself, the 3 guitarists often work together excellently as one, whilst the rhythm section continually proceeds accordingly, but the icing on the cake is, of course, Miguel Meza who once again utilizes his vocals to the very best of his abilities.