ALBUM REVIEW: Fire By The Silos – Toska

When it comes to cities that act as hotbeds for exceptional bands, Brighton may not immediately spring to mind, however with the likes of BLACK PEAKS, ARCHITECTS and WILD CAT STRIKE all emanating from the south coast party town, that opinion is certainly being challenged in 2018. The latest band to spring from this fertile scene are TOSKA, a progressive and highly ambitious trio who combine raw skill with startlingly high levels of ingenuity to create a sound that, on debut record Fire By The Silos, is quite unlike anything else you’ll hear in the UK today.

Opening track The Herd builds gradually with a mostly-restrained mix of subtle instrumental passages eventually giving way to a soaring crescendo that leads into the stunning A Tall Order. Melding some haunting ambient sections with the more experimental bursts for which this three-piece are already well-known, there isn’t a second that goes by that isn’t filled with something interesting, engaging and progressive.

The fact that TOSKA are solely an instrumental act will put some people off straight away, but when the musicality on display is as technically strong and inventive as this there really is no need for any vocals; the lack of an obvious focal point allows you to truly connect with every detail of the riffs, every crash of the symbol.

Abomasum snakes its way through a stark, beautiful and often melancholic landscape, reminiscent of the more shoegaze-orientated elements of the likes of DEAFHEAVEN, before again adding a plethora of crunching riffs that serve to keep you guessing as to what might flow through your headphones next. These heavier passages form the basis of Congress, the first track on the record that favours the exhilarating, thunderous sound more than the stripped back and decidedly esoteric moments that have come before.

A spoken-word voice-over on the title track doesn’t add a great deal to the record, only serving as a slightly ill-judged distraction to the instrumental elements that act as the main selling point of the album. Overall though the band work as a well-oiled machine, sliding seamlessly between weighty, bruising sections and delicate, fragmented bursts of emotion.

One thing that this record definitely needs is time, as it’s impossible to fully grasp every nuance on the first, second or even third listen. What is immediately apparent however is the quality. When Genghis Wakes is perhaps the most obvious example of this, as it crams in so many different elements to its nine minute run time that you’d be forgiven for thinking it was twice as long as it actually is.

This does however highlight the one main issue with the record – its length. With the exception of the intro track and the piano-led Ataraxy, all of the other seven songs clock in at between six to nine minutes, which, while allowing the listener to fully immerse themselves in the art, will undoubtedly limit the amount of people that will be won over by the record.

That said, the music on offer here is at its most impressive when it’s given time to breath, highlighted on the frankly stunning one-two of Prayermonger and The Heard which manage to weave together each and every strand that make TOSKA such a captivating proposition. The spoken word segments that proved misguided earlier on sound so much more sinister and in keeping with the record here, creating a sense of foreboding that casts a malevolent shadow as proceedings draw to a close.

In terms of sheer creativity, Fire By The Silos is one of the standout debut records of 2018, and if you have any kind of affiliation with math rock, prog or even just interesting, complex rock music, then you have to give this your undivided attention. It’s not the finished article by any stretch of the imagination, but it does hint at an incredibly exciting future that could go in any number of different directions. An impressing opening salvo from a band who could be capable of something magical over the coming years.

Rating: 8/10

Fire by the Silos is set for release on November 2nd via self-release.

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