The deliciously gloomy album art on Wall of Water's two-track Promo 2015 features what seems to be a long-abandoned roller coaster rotting away in the elements, an image that seems to jive with the downbeat but arresting style of music played by band members Cullen Toner (multi-instrumentalist and vocalist) and Shawn Eldridge (drummer). Keyboard adds to the occasionally almost theatrical effect of opener “Exposure,” a work that alternately delivers clean or growled vocals alongside almost robotic eruptions of kick and snare, while the lengthy “Clairvoyance” meanders through a slowed-down post-rock opening before kicking into overdrive during a pounding middle stretch. The doomy final third of the piece finds agonized vocal and haunting air raid guitar sending things out on an appropriately uneasy note. Full of interesting, continually shifting rhythms and demonstrating a surprisingly dramatic, musically-satisfying compositional style that regularly cycles through various motifs, this stands as an exhilarating and worthwhile debut release that displays a substantial amount of sonic power and fury, presaging good things to come from the duo responsible for it.
