Soldat Hans - Dress Rehearsal

'Dress Rehearsal'
Soldat Hans
2014

(Band Submission)

Review by Brayden Bagnall

Genre/s: Ambient, Drone, Doom Jazz, Post Metal, Doom, Post Rock
For Fans Of: Bohren & Der Club Of Gore, Heroin And Your Veins, Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra, Earth, Suffocate For Fucks Sake, Cult Of Luna, Kayo Dot

Imagine if you will, the downtrodden, mellow sounds of dark jazz. Now imagine those sounds building up until they become a monolithic crescendo of sludgy guitar drones and screamed vocals. Sounds like Bohren & Der Club Of Gore just met your favourite post metal band doesn't it?
Swiss band Soldat Hans are just this, an equally beautiful and soul destroying mixture of dark, ambient jazz and gigantic doom riffs. While both ends of this spectrum couldn't be further apart musically, the band transitions the two flawlessly - utilizing the lengthy track times to build the instruments up to dizzying highs before sending them crashing back down in a suitably apocalyptic manner. Dress Rehearsal strikes the perfect balance between quiet reflection and full blown emotional catharsis, albeit in the form of music.
I'm honestly blown away by the sheer size and scope of this band's music -not to mention thankful that someone's taken 'doom jazz' to it's literal extreme.  I strongly recommend clicking that link below and checking it out for yourself.

TRACKLISTING:
1. Meine Liebste; Sie zerbricht sich
2. Esthère (im bronzefarbenen Licht)
3. Zikueth! Zikueth!
4. Liefdesgrot

Bandcamp