And There Stand Empires - Ceremonial Syndrome (2018)

Tulsa-based And There Stand Empires really showcases a widely-diversified musical palate, with beautifully dense and lushly descriptive instrumentals that run the gamut of progressive introspective emotion. It’s pretty and melancholic at the same time, with resounding guitar work and pounding drums that contradict the cold finality in the keyboards, along with crescendos and diminuendos that strategically battle in mock, call-response warfare. This band is very good at this sort of thing, a song being a brilliant story rather than just a minor sketch that fits within a bigger storyline. And in it’s ambiguous emotion, it is at times somewhat cathartic. What could be the soundtrack to one’s rainy day tragedy may be the memoirs of another person’s joyous lifetime. When you can pull that off, that’s magic. Recommended if you like: Russian Circles, Steve Reich, His Hero Is Gone and other ambitious post prog material