EP Reviews: Zach Bryan, Jlin & Wolves In The Throne Room

Boys Of Faith EP - Zach Bryan

Zach Bryan dropped his self-titled album a few months ago, which I think is one of the best country projects of 2023. He fully lived up to his potential as a songwriter with rootsy folk-style capabilities and a definitive country swagger to go with. The album also broke him into the mainstream as a commercial music force with his name still popping up in the top 10 of both the Hot 100 and Billboard 200. I think that this EP was released so shortly after for two reasons. The first appears to be that he had leftover material, which is nothing out of the ordinary but normally causes me to temper my expectations. But once I saw the two features on the project it changed my perception. The project also recruits one of 2023's breakout stars Noah Kahan and the always-reliable Bon Iver as features. While the EP hasn't necessarily resulted in a mega-hit or anything, I think it's obviously an attempt to settle Zach Bryan onto the charts indefinitely.

But is it good music? Well, it's a mixed bag. It starts off on a great note with Nine Ball which sees Zach leaning into his narrative side. He details how his father placed bets on him to win at pool because he's gifted with a steady hand. The way he heightens the story with perfect little details that are too specific to not be real while still paying it off on an exciting hook is great. Boys Of Faith is a song that mostly lives up to its potential. I think using Justin Vernon's voice as backing vocals to contrast Zach Bryan is a great idea that sounds great on the song. Really the biggest thing I'm not crazy about it how simple the 

Unfortunately, the record also has a weaker side. While I haven't covered Noah Kahan's music on this blog let's just say I feel bad for any barista who's had to suffer through his hits Dial Drunk and Stick Season all year. That same hokey indie folk style comes through on this song and it just sounds so wrong. Zach's hearty vocals feel so unfamiliar to this stomp-class ass instrumentation. It sounds like Passenger should be singing on this song not Zach Bryan. The closing pair of songs Deep Satin and Pain, Sweet, Pain are where the project most feels like album leftovers. The former relies on a really overwrought vocal performance on the hook that I'm not crazy about and the latter is just straight up hokey. There's a pair of tracks on this EP I like a LOT but for the most part I think it's the glorified B-sides project I was expecting. 5/10

Perspective EP - Jlin

Jlin is an extremely talented composer whose music I've been a big fan of since I first heard it sometime around the release of her magnificent Black Origami project in 2017. While it is classifiable broadly as IDM and electronica there is something recognizable about Jlin's music that is difficult to put into words. Here I'll call it a mechanization, a stiffness that transcends the often very digital bounds of electronic music. In a very vintage way, Jlin's music feels physical and textured in a very non-artificial fashion. Those grinding tones and stiff claps combine together to heighten pretty much every composition she releases and that's once again the case here.  Opener Paradigm is a great example with rigid stuttering drums that feel like something you'd hear in an Aphex Twin song. But unlike Aphex Twin they sound like the result of truly physical machinations which propels quite a unique vision onto Perspective.

That grinding sonic texture shows up all over the record and while it dusts like lead single Fourth Perspective it really starts to completely take hold on Derivative. The track is absolutely steeped in that distortion from the once again stuttering beat to these strange alien synth lines that warble in and out of the entire song. It's not a dizzyingly complicated sonic experience but I wouldn't blame anyone who perceived it that way based solely on how surreal its soundplay is. If there's a track on the album I'm not crazy about it's Dissonance whose rhythmic percussion doesn't really seem to match the same textural intensity that much of the album has and it feels more like an outlier than a necessary change of pace. I'm slightly more fond of though still not head over heels for the closer Duality. The song has a compelling composition but it feels more reserved and less uncompromising and risky than you'd think the finale to a project like this would be. Regardless, the EP does plenty of set up early on to more than weather the storm of a just okay conclusion. After 6 years off Jlin is proving that she's no less willing to take risks and her distinctive style of electronic music still holds up. 7.5/10

Crypt Of Ancestral Knowledge EP - Wolves In The Throne Room

Wolves In The Throne Room are a black metal project that I would describe as, and I'm sorry to say it, stale. They do justifiably get some credit for their innovative early work and like many people, I enjoyed their 2017 album Thrice Woven. But their 2021 follow-up Primordial Arcadia fell incredibly flat with me. It reminded me of their 2014 outing with the band REALLY sticking to their guns in a way I didn't find all that interesting at all. In fact, I probably would have missed this EP entirely if not for the fact that I happened to catch the second single Initiates Of The White Hart by chance. The song was a pretty refreshing direction for the band seeing them deal in a dark spaciousness and abstraction that has been present in their music before but never quite as well done. The song still stands out as a major highlight and easily my favorite thing the band has done in years. However, that doesn't make up for the fact that I'm still not crazy about the lead single Twin Mouthed Spring. Every time the song dials it back what emerges is just painstakingly corny whether it be chimes that definitely don't have the effect they're intended to or cliched acoustic strings. 

Opening track Beholden To Clan is okay. I like the way it manages to rush back from the quieter moments and instantly pick up its intensity. I also think the guitar work sounds great but a little too much of the song feels absolutely bog-standard. The closer Crown Of Stone also carries on from White Hart in a way I find pretty compelling. It starts out as a pretty conventional ambient track but picks up some eerie and shrill sonic textures along the way that once again to a lot to make it a more fear-inducing listen. This EP is okay. There are definitely things I like about it and it's a lot better than the forgettable lead single it led off with. At the end of the day though, this is a genre that I appreciate most when it's innovating and this EP just doesn't do as much of it as I'd like. 6/10