Welcome to the fall and rise... and subsequent fall of the Shadow Kingdom, an album by Natural Snow Buildings that incorporates elements of post rock, drone, avant garde folk and other genres too! While this isn't NSB's strongest outing, far from it really, this is still an immensely enjoyable drone-rock album that for the most part stays top tier.



Natural Snow Buildings needn't any introduction at this point, I've covered a good chunk of their discography already and I'm hoping to finish their entire discography too, hopefully before the summer. I took a long break as you may have noticed but I am back on my NSB grind! Shadow Kingdom, while not too different of an album to a lot of the work we've heard previously (there are major similarities between this and The Dance of the Moon and the Sun but we'll get into that later) there are quite large leaps here that we haven't heard from the duo until now. One of the biggest examples is shown right on the opening track! The Fall of the Shadow Kingdom, a sprawling epic that, while clocks in at a whopping 24 minutes, seems to breeze by without a second thought. The song itself is one of their first (that I've heard anyway) to incorporate a lot of sampling into heavy drone. I know The Winter Ray did this too but not to this extent; having a heavy buzz of destruction in front of light monologuing from the sample. It's subtle but oh so effective. Most of this song remains pretty much the same, but with those subtle nuances that make NSB's music so wonderful to listen to. The Fall of the Shadow Kingdom is definitely up there with NSB's best tracks and I doubt anything will beat it soon; it's not their best (that spot goes to either Wisconsin or Devil's Fork) but it is definitely up there.



The song itself, and the album itself does seem to me to have a narrative of sorts. This loosely based narrative seems to revolve around the said Shadow Kingdom, a kingdom that from the getgo, lies in ruins; the opening track uses its atmospheric and industrial droning to portray that feeling of disrepair. The kingdom has already fallen and here we are watching the remains crumble to the ground, with the occasional flair going off, most of it is silent chaos. As the album moves on, we get a short interlude in Gorgon, with not much to really comment on as it doesn't do all that much to the album, positively or negatively, but our next track: For Fear They May Come is a wonderfully atmospheric track that remains pretty much the same throughout its runtime of 8 and a half minutes but somehow still flies by. It's a song that I get lost in, it feels like the final citizens of the shadow kingdom leaving their homes and trying to find a new one; the song feels low but hopeful. Not all is lost yet and I feel that's what this is trying to portray. You would hope for a happy ending right? Right...? Cauled Ones and Birth Rugs is a song split into two halves, while only being 5 minutes the song feels a lot larger than it actually is. The first half of the song is a long atmospheric drone, a sort of continuation of the previous track, but with a feeling of further hope. Our second part is then broken in with a smooth acoustic play in before we get this very upbeat melody of chimes and harmonicas. It's one of the major highlights of disc one in my opinion. It sounds so beautifully structured and works wonderfully for the song. I could just get lost in these sounds. Salty Tongue, another shorter cut is a lot more of an acoustic-oriented song, similar to the ending of Cauled Ones; you could see it as a continuation of sorts. Narratively this feels like a stretch of walking, a settlement being found and hopefully a home being set up. It's calm, it's serene and it's peaceful.



We get our first feeling of panic by track 7: Os Deus Cannibais, a nearly 14 minute epic that takes no time in setting a tone that we can feel for the rest of the album; this is already the beginning of the end. This song incorporates a lot of psychedelic elements, while these aren't new for NSB, this is the first time we've properly heard them on this album. These sprawling soundscapes feel like a battle brewing, you can feel an unease in the people as they know what is coming, but are nowhere near prepared for it. The entire song seems to build up until the closing couple minutes in which it all culminates into this screeching of harmonicas and drones, a battle? Not really; it's more of a tussle, but we know something is coming and this song begins to set the scene for that. NSB do like to take things slow don't they. The Faceless is another interlude-esc song, really used for narrative structure I feel. Its lyrics speak of someone betraying God, and that they shall now pay for what they've done. Which could make sense and explain as to why the Shadow Kingdom lay in ruins, and continues to fall under attack. Our then closing track for disc one: The Crystal Bird is another psychedelic drone piece this time deciding to cover us all with a mist of unease and fear. It's a song that definitely fits that title. It's slow and foreboding, seemingly dipping in and out of tune. Going from a vocal section to complete nothingness, before rising again through the mist and ascending into our skies. This song serves to really give us that sense of doom that we know is coming. Side one as a whole is used to really set up what side two has to give us, and side two definitely has a lot more of an intense and destructive feel to it.



Disc two opens with Sunbone, a short vocal interlude that again, doesn't do too much for the album but I'm honestly glad it is there, to serve as a pause between The Crystal Bird and our next track; Chthonian Odyssey. This is our second 24 minute song (two of three). This for me is when the album did start to dip a little, while it's definitely not bad, I do feel that side two is weaker than side one, I'll get into my opinions at the end though don't worry. This song feels like a huge buildup towards what we again know is coming, the song features a lot of drums, and feels very aggressive to the ears as up to this point, drums were hardly used in this album. This song serves to be an unsettling one and a song to really get you to feel the fear in the Shadow Kingdom's subjects. Throughout the song it slowly builds up into this explosive middle section that feels unnatural and scary. We get multiple explosions throughout its runtime, each one larger than the last. The crashing of tambourines and drums fill our ears as we're swept up in this whirlwind of terror. This song definitely sets the tone for this side of the album and it's not going to be a fun one.



From here on out though, the album makes a slight shift in genre, incorporating a lot more post-rock elements into the songs. The best example of this is in The Desolated. This song is by far one of the best on the album, possibly right behind The Fall of the Shadow Kingdom, it's a song that goes through many stages, each one better and more powerful than the last. The song opens with droning and light chimes as the hooves of horses can be heard trotting along. As the song moves forwards these sounds get more intense, a whistling is heard now; the wind is picking up. Then the guitar kicks in. Here we get some of the best post-rock that NSB have produced since The Winter Ray. The drums pick up and so do the tambourines as they follow the guitar chords, further instruments float in to give this sense of power and battle. This truly is the beginning of our second fall now. This song gives us hope though, that maybe they'll be ok. These powerful drum beats that fill us as the song slowly evolves into this steady stream of guitar that I could only compare really to something like East Hastings. The song feels like a battle welling up, exploding and then dying out, we can assume which side lost.



We then get our closing tracks, I won't touch on The Vein of Invisibility as it doesn't do much once again but our third 24 minute track is here. Porridge Stick Into the Fire and Dust in the Direction of the Sun is our final blow into the Shadow Kingdom. This song could serve as a prequel to the opener, with its industrial sounding drones and random chiming, it feels like a more chaotic version of the opener. This song is intense, and it makes sure you as a listener know that this is going to be a heavy ride. This is the song where we basically see our titular kingdom fall apart once again, this time for good. While this song portrays the happenings, our next and closing track: A Burial at Sea shows us the aftermath of this epic battle. A Burial at Sea is a heavy handed but soothing closer to this epic of an album, it fits well where it's placed and does work nicely as the closing track. It feels like a good send off to the people who lost their lives in the Shadow Kingdom, due to the circumstances shown in this album. It's a lot to take in and once this song ends you do kind of have to just sit there and think about it all.



So my opinions on this album, I will most likely breach the character limit but I don't care, I have a lot to say it seems. This is definitely a return to form for NSB since the last two albums I listened to were mediocre at best. This is the NSB I want to see, this is the NSB I love to hear... but this album isn't perfect. My biggest issue with this record is that it has glaring similarities to Moon and Sun, while that isn't inherently a bad thing and artists are allowed to have similarities in their works. This album sounds like a weaker version of Moon and the Sun in some places, but it does sound like an evolution in others. It sounds like a natural progression in sound between those two records, possibly even a follow up. Even if I had heard this album prior to Moon and the Sun I still have my other gripes with it. Mainly a couple of the songs do seem to feel either too long or unnecessary.