Genre : Shoegaze, Post-rock, Blackgaze.
Released : September 9th, 2022
Label : Triple Crown Records
FFO : Slowdive, Deafheaven, Nothing, Slow Crush,
This Will Destroy You
I had been hearing the name Holy Fawn float around quite a bit lately without being able to attach a style or genre to them. Seeing their name pop up again with the release of their sophomore album "Dimensional Bleed" along with its intriguing album cover, I knew it was time for me to take the plunge and find out for myself what they were all about.
For some reason I was half expecting some sort of experimental death metal or something similar but instead was greeted with lush, ethereal and heavy shoegaze which appealed to me almost instantaneously.
"Dimensional Bleed" is such a dreamy, layered, melancholic and gorgeous sounding record whose identity is mainly rooted in the shoegaze genre but is peppered with elements of blackgaze, doom, alternative rock and electronics which appear briefly during select moments over the course of the ten tracks this album has to offer.
Some of the more modern, "alternative" vocal passages even brought Lil Peep of all people to mind, which goes to show how diverse this record can be despite being mainly grounded in shoegaze.
Post-rock cinematic buildups tangle with the dreaminess of shoegaze and occasionally provide an explosive, gnashing release of black metal or becomes backed by electronics and slumbering doom metal during its calmer passages while still carrying that sense of contemporary "hip" alternative swagger which bears an attitude of cool detachment.
"Dimensional Bleed" manages to be both blissful and heavy through the atmosphere it creates which, as far as I'm concerned, is the sign of successfully executed shoegaze that effortlessly pulls the listener in within its own singular dimension and it is an absolute pleasure to listen to.