Kylesa

Spiral Shadow (Season of Mist)
By Mike Delano

Sprial Shadow is a sad record. Not in a boo-hoo way, it’s more of a hands-in-pockets, head down, kick the can as the weight of existence slows your movement kind of way (I guess the bleak grey vortex of pain on the album cover should’ve been a tip-off). “There is no celebration,” guitarist/vocalist Phillip Cope sings on “Drop Out.” Tru dat. But the album has some of the band’s most affecting, focused songs, and they sound more honest than ever. Far from the pre- and post-release hysteria, there’s no reason to worry that Kylesa has gotten too experimental or too in love with alt rock flourishes (it’s Crack the Skye anxiety all over again). They just sound comfortable and willing to let the fantastic individual pieces fall into place, from the ripping “Tired Climb” to the immediate pleasures of “Don’t Look Back” and “To Forget’ to the stunningly realized, multi-layered title track. Of course, all of this is filtered through the band’s trademark thick, percussive haze, and taken as a whole, it may be their definitive statement.
(www.season-of-mist.com)