Howling Giant, The Space Between Worlds: Wherein Lies the Frontier
The Space Between Worlds, the Blues Funeral Recordings debut full-length from Nashville three-piece Howling Giant, ticks all its boxes. It pays off the potential of their prior short releases. It solidifies their approach to songwriting and helps set their course for their ultimate defining of who they are as a band. It rocks. It showcases an awareness of the whole-album form separate from simply a collected bunch of songs. It is full, clear in its intention, and produced in such a way as to bolster the music without any sense of mismatch between band, song and the recording helmed in continuing collaboration with Kim Wheeler. And yet all of this does little to convey the achievement the Tennessee progressive heavy rockers are making throughout.
As they follow-up their three EPs — 2017’s Black Hole Space Wizard: Part 2 (review here), its 2016 predecessor, Black Hole Space Wizard: Part 1 (review here), and their recently-reissued 2015 self-titled — guitarist/vocalist Tom Polzine and drummer/vocalist Zach Wheeler welcome bassist/vocalist Sebastian Baltes to the lineup (Kevin “Big Business” Dempsey also contributes on bass) and conjure a sound that is an amalgam of modern influences, from the uptempo, Torche-style sludge-pop burst of the opening salvo in “Comet Rider” and “Nomad” as well as the presumed side B opener “Cybermancer and the Doomsday Express,” the Ancestors-style organ-laden heavy prog roll of “The River Guide” and the expansive “Everlight,” the Elephant Tree-esque harmonies in the acoustic/piano turn brought about with third track “Ghosts in the Well,” and the sheer scope of harmonies throughout, from the fuzzy forward sprint of centerpiece “Ice Castle” (which brings in Jason Shi of ASG for a guest vocal spot) to the massive trilogy that closes the record in “Everlight,” “The Orb” and “Stone Giant.” With Drew David Harakal II returning to add keys/synth as on all their past releases, Howling Giant unite their material under a conceptual sci-fi narrative of a multi-dimensional huntress chasing a dream-eating gateway destroyer through various worlds — or something — and thereby add even further willfulness to what they’re doing. Oh, and they also make it fun.
And that last one turns out to be pretty crucial, because Howling Giant sound like they’re absolutely having a blast as they careen through “Comet Rider” at the start and cut the tempo to bring up the hook of “Nomad,” and that positive feeling so much communicated through the melody of the vocals is infectious. With just an undertone of Elder‘s proggy fluidity, “Nomad” and “The River Guide” — with “Ghosts in the Well” between them — are able to still convey a sense of enjoying their creation, and that finds answer later as “The Orb” gleefully chug-gallops its way toward the finale with a mosh part that at the turn of the century one might’ve called a breakdown. It’s shenanigans, either way. Pure and simple. But it still adds depth to the spoken word and piano drift of “The River Guide” and the quiet contemplations of “Ghosts in the Well,” in such a way that it’s not simply about Howling Giant goofing off — though it’s partially about that, to be sure — but also about their being able to turn their passion for playing together into part of The Space Between Worlds‘ essential character. That level of revelry becomes one of the album’s grandest statements. It is a celebration.
However, it’s not lost in celebration. Especially topped with thoughtful arrangements of vocals as it is, The Space Between Worlds is never so lost in its own good times that it forgets either the individual task at hand in a song or how that song feeds into the record’s larger statement and plot. Howling Giant set a balance for themselves in sound and presentation alike, and when they need to, as on “The River Guide,” they show patience, and when they blast off in “Comet Rider” or “Cybermancer and the Doomsday Express,” they do so with suitable fervency. In either case, it’s the song and it’s the album that remain at the center of what they’re doing. I don’t know if individual tracks were written with the concept directly in mind or the narrative was applied later with lyrics after the music was done, etc., but the front-to-back flow of The Space Between Worlds isn’t to be understated, especially in how it comes through with side B pushing through to new levels of execution.
After the raucous four-minute open with “Cybermancer and the Doomsday Express,” Howling Giant round out The Space Between Worlds with its three longest tracks: “Everlight” (7:57), “The Orb” (7:08) and “Stone Giant” (6:17). It’s not so much that any of them directly touches on new stylistic ground for the band. Strictly speaking, they’re a forward step from the last EP, but of the same aesthetic ilk. The context has changed, however, and Howling Giant thrive across these three songs as they haven’t yet done to-date. They are the most upfront communication of scope that the album presents, and all the more so because of how obviously purposeful their placement and their complementing each other is.
“Everlight” announces its arrival with organ, airy guitar and vocals, and builds gradually over its first two-plus minutes to a sweeping progression given a tempo boost after the three-minute mark, and while its structure is linear, it’s nonetheless memorable for its hooky melody and standout lead work, going quietly into the unassuming drum-led beginning of “The Orb,” which unfolds and teases its turn to triplet-chug before it actually gets there at 2:01, the chill-down-spine energy immediate and the band ready to ride that moment for a while before breaking back to more melodic fare and returning — as they should — for a suitable crescendo that serves double for song and album alike.
A soft piano comedown transitions into the drums starting “Stone Giant” and it’s clear Howling Giant aren’t done yet in terms of energy. Rather, they finish out by tying together the choruses of “Comet Rider” and “Cybermancer and the Doomsday Express” with some of the offering’s more progressive fare, and, as one would hope, leave it to a massive rolling groove to carry the record to its end in raucous but ultimately graceful fashion that only portends of things to come. A next chapter? Pt. 2? Maybe, if not in concept. One way or the other, the potential Howling Giant show for future growth shouldn’t undercut the value of this accomplishment. The Space Between Worlds stands high among 2019’s best debut albums, but also among its best albums, period, and shows the three-piece as ready to enter a new level of consideration as a force of forward-thinking heavy rock and roll.
Howling Giant, The Space Between Worlds (2019)
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