4 out of 5

Label: TminusONEmusic, Dischord

Recorded by: J. Robbins

Instrumental metal / rock generally comes in a few forms, but there’s been a long sought after goal of combining heaviness with prettiness. I know many people can / will point to a handful of bands who they feel manage this combo, but the frequently named culprits, to me, tend to fall short due to being a bit too precious. Either the compositions are too delicate to ever really land as heavy, or too mired in a single mood to encourage full on immersion, and then different degrees of those issues. It’s like, just play pretty stuff, but play it hard. Sounds easy!

…Tone (aka Tone (DC), just to confuse your googling) is one of the only bands who manages to consistently nail this combo, at least for my ears. Their broad, rich sound allows for layers of shoegazey guitars and bass and drums that glide and soar, and then they’ll double down on a beat and go at it, intensely, for minutes on end. I have some narrative in mind regarding one of the core members of the group being a drummer, lending the collaborations a fluidity akin to jazz, but that’s likely fiction; better to look at their release history and see a move from Dischord – punk chops – to Neurot, going slightly more outre, to their own label / self-releasing – i.e. the path of many bands who’ve grown beyond definitions.

“Antares,” their seventh full length, makes good on the sci-fi overtones of that title, splitting the runtime between long, glowing stretches of layered melody – building and building; ever-escalating – pummeling rockers, and something that ebbs and flows between the two, stitched together by some classic chugga chugga. This all maps quite perfectly to a trio of mixers working on the album, with Will Benoit working on the floatier tracks, Kurt Ballou killing it when the drums and riffage kick up on Weapon of Moonlight, and constant companion J. Robbins doing overall production and handling the remaining mixing. The first half of the disc exists in spacier realms, with the title track taking flight, busy and restless as the layers build, then Weapon is this triumphant march forward – conquering a planet, let’s say. PLSKN’s title can’t help but make me think of a similarly named post-apocalypse survivor, which syncs with the song’s rebellious vibes, struggling between prettier and meaner sections.

The second half of the album feels like a contemplative response: if the first three tracks are always in motion, from Quiver onward, an attempted calmness guides song’s structures. We still get a divide of shoegazey and rock, but there are notes of hope in there – part of Tone’s magic is the way they insert all of these little subtleties into their waves of guitar noise, and that’s used to give a sense of discovery, and looking onward and upward, to the music.

The minor critical note is one that extends to a lot of my Tone listens, to the extent that I realize I should get used to it, but: songs can go on too long. The group likes to avoid a traditional build and release, instead adding layers and layers with slight tweaks along the way. It’s incredibly engaging, song by song, but taken as a whole, it can be a bit much – there’s not quite enough changing (or a clear enough hook) to “justify” every song extending to nine+ minutes; i.e. it makes it feel a lil’ less special as you go along. An easy enough problem to clear up just by listening to the record over and over, though.