Glassing – Twin Dream Review

Glassing and I have a complicated relationship. Spotted Horse hit a spot for me in 2019: the first 4.0 I ever awarded ’round these parts.¹ Unfortunately, time was not kind and my experience with its rough edges and one-dimensional vocals landed it on Contrite Metal Guy, where I reeled it back a point.² The band’s tantalizing blend of concrete-thick sludge and crystalline melody is nonetheless unforgettable, and the initial hype and subsequent fall from grace is something that still haunts me. Its initial rating nor its revised grade sits well with me, in spite of standing by everything I’ve said. Mathy portions are sloppy, sludgy passages can be boring, and the vocals need variety. But somehow, Spotted Horse still feels like a thorn in my side – a misdeed that goes unforgiven or a malady left untreated.

Now we’re greeted with third full-length Twin Dream. While the Austin, TX quartet offers myriad influences in sludge, black metal, post-rock, shoegaze, noise rock, post-hardcore, and epic post-metal songwriting to round out the pack, Glassing‘s sound is inimitable. And I’m happy to report that Twin Dream is the band’s best effort yet. Its eleven tracks have been streamlined for a cohesive two-part narrative that flows as fluidly as water while freezing the blood with crushing density, frosty bleakness, heart-wrenching melody, and barbed noise. While I’m not sure where I stand on Spotted Horse, Twin Dream knocks it out of the park with a renewed duality of streamlined ugly and beautiful, accomplished with grace and malevolence alike.

Glassing has addressed nearly every flaw that hindered Light and Death and Spotted Horse without compromising their identity. Twin Dream has largely done away with the mathy spazz-outs and approach vocals with more variety in shrieks, growls, and cleans, allowing the album to live in the margins, the crevices, and the peaks – the band’s prime environment. Also unlike its predecessors, whose respective tonal issues compromised direction, Twin Dream feels stunningly balanced. Offering dissonant and shimmering melodies in the name of melancholy and misery, tracks teeter the edge of sanity between harmony and dissonance. Exchanging filthy riffs for melody with startling heaviness, “Spire” and the title track are guided by their bass grooves and crushing heft, riffs guiding the journey with density; meanwhile, “Absolute Virtue” and “Burden” let their melodic shards take form, dragging listeners in by the glistening in the throat. Better still, instrumentals don’t feel like needless interludes. Instead, “Faint,” “Godless Night,” and “Where Everything is Still” set the tone respectively for what is to follow, painting Glassing as composers of movements rather than simply compilers of songs, giving greater spotlight to the slow-burning title track and patient instrumental “Godless Night” as two halves of Twin Dream‘s centerpiece – the eye of the storm.

Twin Dream is the tale of two halves. While tracks 1 through 6 embrace the jagged noise and dissonance, 7 through 11 can suddenly feel like heavier This Will Destroy You tracks. While initially jarring, this is not a bad thing, as “Doppler” and “Among the Stars” feel like classic Spotted Horse-era tracks, while the major keys of “True North” and “At Long Last” embrace a more screamo flavor of Pianos Become the Teeth with notes of desperation and fragments of melody. Thanks to the smooth transitions of “Godless Night” and interlude “Where Everything is Still,” the shift is not damning and smooths over after multiple spins. Although warranting repeated listens to adjust, most consistently jarring is the conclusion of closer “At Long Last,” which very abruptly ends without warning. At the end of the day, however, each song is executed with fantastic charisma and rock-solid songwriting, making Twin Dream‘s only flaw these tonal issues.

One of Glassing‘s most admirable traits, compared to much of the metalverse, is its patience. Twin Dream does not feel overly long at its forty-seven minute runtime, and its tracks take their time with an emphasis on post-rock dynamics and organic growth. It feels as though, compared to Spotted Horse and Light and Death, these Austin natives finally accomplish an album that showcases their best and most unique qualities: a Geminian duality between dissonant bleakness and uplifting melody, accomplished through an emphasis on meditative songwriting. Taking advantage of every second with intention and purpose, in spite of its jarring two-half dichotomy, third time’s the charm – and Glassing capitalizes on its strengths in nearly every facet. While I’m still not sure where I stand on Spotted Horse, Twin Dream‘s quality is unquestionable.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Brutal Panda Records
Websites: glassing.bandcamp.com | glassingband.com | facebook.com/glassingband
Releases Worldwide: November 5th, 2021