ALBUM REVIEW: A Man And His Nature – Ropes Inside A Hole

While the pandemic (yes, we are still seeing the effects of the pandemic) bred a large amount of isolation and loneliness, post-metal collective ROPES INSIDE A HOLE used those exact feelings to create sophomore album A Man And His Nature. The Italian and Swedish group used the time to bolster their line-up and bring in global masters in order to deliver a malignant manifesto of suffering and longing.

More than four years on from debut album Autumnalia, the growth is immediately apparent. While that release was wholly instrumental, A Man And His Nature has added vocals courtesy of SUFFOCATE FOR FUCK SAKE‘s Daniel Loefgren; where the former had its teething issues amidst the emotional maelstrom, the latter is far more seamless and finished, more calculated in its miserly ways; where Autumnalia showed promise, A Man And His Nature installs ROPES INSIDE A HOLE as one of post-metal’s dearest new proponents. 

But it’s not a case of wholesale change. The red thread that was laced through prior work is still evident here, and of the six tracks offered, only three contain vocals. As a result, A Man And His Nature plays out like something of a call-and-response between this new iteration and the old, and from the listener’s perspective, it allows time to soak in the atmosphere, or dwell on what you’ve just heard before the next morose passage is uttered. Lead single Distance opens the album as a blustering, emotive chunk of post-metal goodness. Delicate guitar lines lap at a shore of droning, morose strings, while Loefgren’s shoegaze vocals dial up the ethereal factor. But when the bass guitar, which sounds thoroughly cataclysmic throughout this album, comes thundering in at the halfway point and tremolo picked chords take over toward the end, there’s a real sense of desperate urgency about ROPES INSIDE A HOLE’s sound.

Others Are Gone. I Don’t Care brings pummelling drums to the fore and lets the hypnotic tub-thumping of the kick and bass drums interplay with noodly guitar melodies, resulting in an instrumental that still feels like it has a dual-aspect vocal element. Feet In The Swamp, Gaze To The Sky takes a similarly chin-stroking approach, evolving through multiple iterations of soft and harsh instrumental, before swan diving into its final terrifying form via soaring saxophone interludes. It adds great texture to the release and further demonstrates ROPES INSIDE A HOLE’s deep understanding and appreciation for post-metal.

But it’s the final instrumental on A Man And His Nature that really shows off the abilities of the collective. Penultimate track Overwhelmed starts as a hulking mass of violent riffs, crashing cymbals and that driving bass guitar whose tone could move mountains, before regressing back to soft and considered plucked strings and atmosphere. While it may be the shortest song on the album (although still a shade over five minutes), it makes for a stunning and captivating performance and one that you will come back to time and time again.

A Man And His Nature is a brooding and solemn listen that perfectly soundtracks the January blues. ROPES INSIDE A HOLE bring superb pedigree and a thorough understanding of everything surrounding the post-metal genre. Here’s to hoping we see a lot more of them throughout 2023.

Rating: 8/10

A Man And His Nature is set for release on January 10th via Voice Of The Unheard Records and Shove Records.

Like ROPES INSIDE A HOLE on Facebook.