It’s been 9 years since the sprawling prog rock concept record ‘Pink Lemonade’ – 13 years since the feisty up tempo prog punk of ‘First Temple’ and 14 years since the earnest post-hardcore of their debut albumette ‘The Penance and the Patience.’
In the years hence, those milestones have been etched in fans minds as tent poles of the band’s career, which has seemingly lurched on a wide spectrum from post to pillar.
But to insiders, the band’s evolution has been a natural process, borne of their desire to express every element of their creativity.
Now, in a further extension of that evolution, 12 new songs comprising the album ‘Soft Hell’ will finally be released in 2023.
Where ‘First Temple’ yearned and ‘Pink Lemonade’ churned, ‘Soft Hell’ settles in as perhaps the most mature and studiously crafted album of their career.
Whilst the singles ‘Better Way’ and ‘Primal Sinister’ are nods to the sounds and attitudes band’s previous records, once you hit the jungle of sounds on the groove-laden ‘Absolute Terror Field’, the down tempo ballad ‘Keeper of the Lake’, the Prince-soul-rock of ‘Holy Rush’ and the industrial soul of ‘Don Juan Triumphant’ – you realise, this is entirely new territory for Closure in Moscow. The hooks, lyricism and songcraft take the forefront, whilst the bombast and technical proficiency are channelled into impossibly tasty grooves, guitar & bass solos dripping with juicy goodness and drum fills presented as morsels on an album size degustation menu. The understated musicianship on this material reveals itself on repeated listens.