Released: 2024
Genre: Post-hardcore, Math rock
Sounds Like: The Jesus Lizard, These Arms Are Snakes, Pissed Jeans
Homeland: Colorado
What makes Terrain elite and sit atop OHMs Peak?
Almanac Man return with a brilliantly layered album that catapults them into one of the top new math rock/post-hardcore bands today
Innovative and heavy melodies with richly driven angled rhythms keeps this album churning and fresh
Almanac Man are incredibly tight and cohesive, further showcasing thier unusual vision and chemistry
The captivating and highly contagious vocal battle between Dooley and Picco continues to impress.
The bass-work from Sean Dove feels influenced by the great Jesus Lizard and really elevates the album
Track Listing:
1. Lotusland 4:13
2. Terrain 4:06
3. Smoke Signals 4:06
4. Grief Pool 4:49
5. Arrakis 3:28
6. Blue Gold 4:15
7. Unnerving 5:13
8. Until our creatures last light 5:19
Dive deeper into Terrain with our Q&A with Brian, Sean and Scott from Almanac Man.
OHMs Peak: What a tremendous sophomore release. Terrain travels on a diverse mix of surfaces and we experience the expansion of your sound. Terrain branches out into more melodic tones and elaborate contrast. We see a little softer side along with some more exploratory angles of Almanac Man here. Take us through your process on this album if you could.
Brian: Several things with the world and the band changed after our first record “for your cause”. Both the external influence of exiting a pandemic and the internal influence of adding a new friend and musician to the group. A lot of the melody balance in the music came from those influences and exploring new tones and tunings. Vocally, Scott and I, as a part of writing the vocals to two of the more melodic songs in the studio for “for your cause” felt like we stumbled on something that really stood out. With the writing of Terrain we knew we were going to approach it that way from the start and explore our dual vocal attack further.
Sean: I’ve primarily been a guitarist before this band so this album was my first real experience writing and performing on bass. It was a fun challenge to be developing a style that suited me while also figuring out how to blend into the band’s existing sound. A major benefit of being a three-piece is having space to stand out so I mostly wanted to focus on giving Brian and Scott a foundation to go to different places with their instruments and voices. I’m a huge fan of bands like Torche and mclusky who are able to balance their heavy/noisiness with catchy melodic parts so I think I helped drive things in that direction a bit - there aren’t a lot of bands in the space we operate in who are going for “hooks” so it’s free real estate.
Scott: I couldn’t agree more with Sean and Brian’s comments here. I would add that in previous bands I’ve always written the lyrics and vocal melodies in full and had them practiced to the point where I could drum and sing live before recording. I made an effort to try a lot of different melodies and phrasing with demo recordings while not playing drums to allow for a more focused attention to the vocal melodies and phrasing. I also leaned into harmonies and backups. Roughly 2/3rds of Terrain was recorded in full before I ever attempted to learn playing and singing the vocal parts at the same time. For me at least this was a major departure to how I’d approached this in the past. Brian and I also discussed approaches more per song and leaned into the twin vocal approach even more with this record.
OHMs Peak: ‘Blue Gold’ Is our favorite of the lot with its anthemic harmonies and innovative math rock angles. Take us through the meaning along with the ‘water’ references?
Scott: The writing of the song was all music first. This song became the perfect vehicle for something I’d always wanted to do with a heavy, mathy rock song: to sneak a traditional ¾ waltz beat into a song! Luckily the rest of the guys were on board with it and this kind of led to all the other unique time shifts in the song. To me it ended up being quite different but doesn’t sound forced jumping between the time signatures.
When it comes to the vocals and lyrics I usually start out with a general topic and then build from there. Perhaps it was moving to Denver in 2019 from Chicago and just getting a different perspective of how critical water is but that awareness living in a high desert + climate change led to me extrapolating out in time imagining a world in which water is the most critical possession. It for sure has a dystopian slant but to me it's really not too far fetched. I also felt it was an interesting juxtaposition to have a relatively catchy song, with almost dancy rhythms at points with a pretty heavy, bleak topic.
OHMs Peak: What band would you love to tour with that would most compliment your sound?
Brian: We love to tour with all of our favorite bands we have the privilege of playing with each year. All of our lifelong music friends that influence and compliment our sound and lives!
OHMs Peak: We so love the simplicity of the album name and also the prehistoric album art. Who came up with the artwork and what was your process of evaluation?
Sean: Morgan Robles (@MxMorgan) is a Seattle-based artist who I've followed for a while. I saw a tattoo commission they did a while back and reached out to see if they had any interest in doing album art. Morgan happened to like our music and was totally on board with working with us so I told them we'd reach back out once we were further along in the process. A few months later we were in the studio and started looking through their portfolio for some existing art that might fit the vibe when they happened to post that smilodon as a new piece. We were already circling the title and lyrical themes at that point and it just fit so well - gloomy and evocative without being generically “metal.” Morgan was very cool about adapting it and extending it for the back cover. It's a great piece and we've already gotten a ton of compliments on it. We really lucked out. Credit also to Scott’s wife Carly for handling the layout and presentation of the cover/sleeve.
Brian: The simplicity of the name expanded beyond what was the second song title on the record. Terrain to me represented something vast and open representing the sonic approach and the lyrical themes of the record fit an overall idea that we all share this vast, complex, crumbling land, and the art as Sean stated showed up in their portfolio and it was just perfect.
OHMs Peak: You have amazing chemistry. How did Almanac Man come to form and how has Sean Dove assimilated with the team?
Brian: Almanac man came to form, when my previous band Laurium, was on its last legs. Scott had moved to Denver and I knew of him from attending a prf event in chicago. I asked him to start jamming to see if I wanted to start something new. It evolved from Laurium disbanding eventually and became something entirely different. I think the chemistry with us started from two “band dads” states of mind where we had the right amount of experience to let something grow organically. Then with covid occurring it sort of made it this thing that was allowed to evolve without added distractions of trying to play out fast, which was a positive to improve the song writing.
Sean: I met Brian and Scott through our mutual friend Cory, who is the drummer for the excellent Moon Pussy. I had recently picked up bass to fill in on another friend's project and inadvertently started to really enjoy it. Cory and I had jammed a few times and he threw my name out when these guys were looking for a replacement for (previous bassist) Nick, who relocated after recording the last album. They obviously had an existing songwriting dynamic that I was happy to take a backseat to but this really was one of the most egalitarian, ego-free collaborative experiences I've ever had. There was a lot of overlap in our tastes and reference points so it felt like we spoke the same language from the jump.
Scott: I’ll add that within 1-2 practices I could feel that tangible connection with drums and bass which is more chemistry than skill. Sean fit right in and it was pretty effortless at least from my point of view.
OHMs Peak: We would love any insight behind the selection of your name and its origin.
Brian: Man you won’t love this answer but I bet I'm not alone. I hate naming bands and ive actually never been in a band that i actually named except maybe high school, i forget, shout out Profane. The name was given to me by my label partner in Bobby Johnson (TGIC RECS). He had it stored around a while and told me to make something with it. Since I'm a man of science and theory I figured cool enough let's go. It now has sort of a fun context since our current lineup was all born the same week of the same year.
Scott: I’ll add that I simply came from the point of view of “Oh it's not already taken and it sounds ok off the tongue and isn’t too long? Let’s do it”.
OHMs Peak: Almanac Man is stranded on an island with only a solar powered turn table and majestic powered solar blue tooth speakers. The band collectively can only choose one album. Which album to you agree to?
Scott: This is a near impossible question. I generally don’t love any band, album, or even musical style to make that selection the only thing I listen to forever.With that being said, we talked it over as a band and based on our tour listening rotation we would have to go with “My Dick’s Double Full Length” by the band My Dick based out of Ohio. Google it and enjoy the delectable ear worm that crawls into your brain oh so smoothly!
OHMs Peak: Thank you for recommending My Dick... earworms galore!
Almanac Man are:
Sean Dove: Bass
Scott Picco: Drums/Vox
Brian Dooley: Guitars/Vox
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