Frames – In Via (2012)

Delivering their highly anticipated second full-length release “In Via”, today we have Frames and their cinematic brand of instrumental Post/Art Rock. If you like nice and relaxing musical trips, this album will surely be of your interest. With a striking similarity to bands like Poland’s Lebowski and God is an Astronaut, Frames is set to captivate audiences with their excellent musical abilities and melancholic songwriting style.

Opening with the mysterious intro “Entrance”, the band fully explodes into full ‘out of this world’ mode with “Departure”. The trippy guitars and powerful bass guitar line help make this song very ethereal and transport the listener to a different place. With “Encounter” the atmosphere sets a very nice mellow mood, and the occasional beats make things more interesting. The power of the guitars is nicely used to fully develop atmospheric passages in a very brilliant manner.

“Calm Wisdom” delivers a very indie film score feeling, but it nicely slows downs the album and features some very nice cellos. With “Stir” and “Reflections” the band picks up the pace again with some brilliant momentum building sections that culminate with strong distorted guitars. While this approach is very formulaic for the genre, Frames does a great job in keeping the buildup interesting enough to never get boring.

The most experimental track of this release is the 8-minute epic “Eris”. Mixing some beats, very hypnotic drums and more string instruments, this track is our favorite one of this release. With a very Meshuggah-like opening, “End of A Decade” is a very nice change of pace and a quite unique track in this release. We also loved the somber ending to this released provided by the cinematic “Coda”, a very dark and mellow track that nicely rounds up an excellent release.

There is no doubt that Frames has very talented musicians and that their music is quite hypnotic and ethereal. We greatly enjoyed “In Via”, and we are sure that fans of Post-Rock / Art Rock will agree. If you are looking for something that is very ethereal in nature but with a  hefty dose of distorted guitars and a great sense of melody, look no further.

Release: April 23rd, 2012

Country: Germany