3 out of 5

Label: Expert Work Records

Produced by: Mike Montgomery, Zach Biri (recorded by, mixed by)

New Tongues, across prior releases, have been aiming for a “more” they couldn’t quite find. The core of their sound – a stripped down, heavy march; elements of Haunted Horses, or Young Widows – has pushed into louder hardcore, or a bit of jangle, but the material feels most impactful when the band leans into that core. On Dark / Light they take a step back from that approach, seemingly wanting to focus more on messaging, and thus making the words and gloomy tone of the songs very, very important.

But they still can’t quite get there. The core still rocks: Shane Johnson’s haunted vocals are tempered well for looming menace, with the bass-heavy groove of each track familiar – see the bands I already referenced – but definitely effective nonetheless. And the template is sound: extending that groove not into slow builds; dramatic explosions towards songs’ ends, as some lyrical Point is repeated. The presentation of Dark / Light is awesome, using their now established full-bleed logo to cover juxtaposed images of a resort and, on the back, construction, with the liner notes presented as kind of an anarchist’s zine. But, again, they’re not exactly finding the secret sauce to really make you feel what the haunted vocals, lyrical points, and intentional design are aiming for; they don’t have the words, or the chords, to produce something that isn’t just kind of skimming the surface of things you’ve heard elsewhere.

Closer Salt the Fields is an interesting push towards a Depeche Mode-esque synth sound, but it’s still limited in the same fashion as mentioned above. Though right on the cusp of being something more, Dark/Light still can’t quite mask how hard New Tongues is trying to stand out from their inspirations and peers.