BAND OF THE DAY: VESTIGES

Formed in January 2010 as a duo, the line-up of this Washington DC four-piece has expanded along with their sound, but save announcing the existence of their album – released January and available for download, they're adamant that the music should do the talking. And it has a great deal to say.

Like the changing of the seasons in a nuclear winter, 'The Descent of Man' is a bleak and unforgiving chasm of gaping post-sludge chords echoing endlessly into the darkness, flecked with the occasional rays of light which break through the ashen clouds, and clattering acidic rainfall of black metal riffs and martial d-beat drums. The anguished, hoarse vocals either the sound of the last man pleading to be taken – all of which fits nicely with their general tolling of the planet's plague bell, citing “industrialisation, militarisation, overpopulation, theism, specieisim, and nihilism” as the horseman riding out on the eve of our forthcoming apocalypse.

Vestiges have such a sprawling sonic vision – reminiscent of Fall of Efrafa, Dead to a Dying World and Year of the Flood – that it deserves visual representation: yeah, they're making a film to go with it, plus two more albums, an EP and an LP to "create the narrative". Ambitiously sounding black metal-flavoured post-crust units may be the flavour of the month in beard-land, but ambitious and well executed concepts are still very much the exception.