The final minutes of Black Clouds’ debut album did not have a happy ending: In a spoken word coda, Clutch‘s Neil Fallon repeatedly informs the listener that “everything is not going to be OK,” and despite the fact this had already been well communicated by the album itself, this was the first time that language had been used to articulate its quasi-nihilism. For this Washington DC-based trio, it was a rare but vivid show-me-and-tell-me moment.
Which is to say that Dreamcation, Black Clouds’ sophomore effort and Collect Records debut, is a significantly different kind of record. That sense of doom, once mined for its power, is more effectively harnessed for a nuanced energy- the darkness curbed just enough to let the light in-and the result is alternately aggressive and ambient, often in the same song, and sometimes in the same part: “Carcosa,” for one, takes equal cues from funeral and ascension, and “Some Of Us Are Meant To Disappear” somehow pummels you into a warm hug. A smart and measured progression, Black Clouds finds itself at their most introspective on Dreamcation, and if this album’s finalé eschews language altogether for a wash of subtle chords and a blissfully ecstatic drone, it’s only because-perhaps-everything is going to be OK after all.
Black Clouds will be making the following appearances in October and November. Dates below.
OCTOBER
28 – Brooklyn, NY – Glasslands – (w/ No Devotion, Ricky Eat Acid, Creepoid)
NOVEMBER
21 – Washington DC – Black Cat (Dreamcation Record Release Show)
