Lungfish

Some bands grow up as they grow older; others are born ancient and simply erode. Over the course of the past fifteen years, Baltimore’s Lungfish has built an edifice of epic, imposing post-hardcore that resounds far beyond the small world that birthed it — and Feral Hymns is another chip off that old block. Guitarist Asa Osborne still twists his strings into knots, and on tracks like “Time Is a Weapon of Time” and “Sing,” his loping, folk-informed arpeggios mesh with the rhythm section to form some vast and hypnotic apparatus. But it’s singer Daniel Higgs — part savant, part sailor, part sorcerer — who anchors these songs in a sea-chanty sophistry, spinning myth and wisdom out of raw-throated mantras. Produced by Tim Green of the Fucking Champs, the album has a crystalline quality that’s been missing from Lungfish’s last few efforts; while a certain murky aura fits the band, the brittle aridity of Feral Hymns has allowed it to slough off its skin and reveal new shapes lurking within its undying, primordial drone.