It's been barely over two years since I last wrote about Polish trio Setting the Woods on Fire, and "Ruins" is their latest EP (this time coming from the perhaps more known Engineer Records roster), which sees the band taking their stripped down, classic emo aesthetic in a few new directions throughout four tracks/20 minutes. There's still a good amount of restrained, fuzzy distortion and a combination of relaxed singing and shouting/screaming vocals, but they're now flirting with some subtle textural effects and melodies that could probably be tagged with the whole "post-rock" thing (not in a bad way, though). This time around the recording also gives the basslines more oomph, and is a bit heavier in general, so you can start to discern more of a noise rock influence happening. I think the biggest difference, though, is that they're putting more energy into the songwriting, which covers a wider range of emotions—from the somber and chilled out angle that was most prominent on their debut to both catchier and more aggressive moments herein. It's great to see the band showing signs of progression and starting to garner more attention, and I'm once again looking forward to hearing more...
Setting the Woods on Fire "December Decay"
Get It
Engineer Records (CD)
Amazon.com (mp3)
iTunes (mp3)
