Gloson – The Rift [Things You Might Have Missed 2022]

Most sludge is boring. Repeating chords for an hour doesn’t make you ISIS, just like playing a 16-string guitar at 65,536 bpm doesn’t make you Archspire. Excellent post-metal requires even more self-control than other genres, since it needs to be repetitive but not dull, simple but not lazy, and creative but not flashy. Enter Gloson. These Swedes play a familiar style that lies between Cult of Luna and Neurosis, forging a soundscape with thick sludgy riffs. Even to my jaded ears, Gloson’s The Rift is a testament to everything that sludge can be.

The Rift is the post-metal album of 2022 because of its masterful layering. Gloson’s sound is a carnival for the ears that weaves together elegant melodies, distorted rhythmic guitars, and ironclad bass lines. The Rift often appends these elements slowly until they stifle you, like the “Dark City Dead Man”-reminiscent climax of album highlight “Cerberus IV (Exodus).” Conversely, when Gloson peels back these layers incrementally on tracks like “Windbearer,” it illustrates how perfectly they fit together. This careful construction allows Gloson to wreak havoc even with simple ideas. Indeed, the album’s greatest triumph is a two-note theme on “Cerberus” that Gloson introduces over a morose melody, builds up, distorts, passes off to a new guitar, and finally releases from its shackles. It’s a masterclass in thoughtful simplicity.

The Rift is home to some of the greatest transitions of the year. ​​Samuel Envik’s drums go a long way on this front; in addition to stealing the show with mesmerizing rhythms (“Stygian and Aberrant”), his pounding drum lines serve as a backbone and a home base for Gloson’s melodic escapades. Gloson’s riffs also fit together seamlessly, and The Rift often uses a few beats of foreshadowing to lead gracefully into new sections (“Impetus”). This meticulous songwriting ensures that the ebb and flow of The Rift feels natural.

The result is an album that grabbed me and stabbed me through the heart. The Rift’s combination of sparse melodies and crushing climaxes is stunning in its emotional force. I’m left dumbstruck throughout the record, like when the somber main melody of “Windbearer” is stripped bare or when the pieces of “Cerberus” coalesce before unraveling into insanity. These sections would hit even harder if the production gave a bit more room for each instrument to shine. Still, every time I listen to the album, I find new details to appreciate and new soft spots in my own heart.

I won’t soon forget the first time that Gloson’s “Ultraviolet” struck me. It was late on a weeknight in March during a horrible week, and I was sulking on the 4/5 train platform at Fulton St. Everything washed over me at once: the hopeless intro, the subtle guitar interplay in the first half, the jaw-dropping transition out of funeral doom, the octave-hopping of the main lead, the hypnotic rhythm, and the guitars’ transformation from tranquility to frantic tremolo. I left my train in a stupor, feeling like I’d been whisked onto Mars for a century.

This, to me, is the mark of excellent post-metal: this indescribable ability to transport me away from my hamster wheel into a universe of melody, rhythm, and emotion. Lose yourself in The Rift.

Tracks to Check Out: “Windbearer,” “Cerberus IV (Exodus),” “Ultraviolet”