Easily, my greatest flaw with doing reviews and seeking what album to listen to is that I rely far too much on the cover art before I even hear a single note, sometimes deciding not to listen to an effort whatsoever simply because I don’t find the cover alluring. It’s something I’ve done my best to combat over the years, yet I still find that it comes at me when I least expect it. I’m ashamed to admit that happened to me when I saw the downright neon art that adorns Breaths’ debut album, and I’m beyond ecstatic that I conquered it to hear the true majesty that is “Lined in Silver”.

Right out of the gate, you get the feeling that “Lined in Silver” is not going to be anything worth anything to people who are looking for any sort of heaviness. It starts off with a great set of clean vocals that you can feel are pulling straight from the soul to make for an extremely potent performance that can be placed in the realm of post-rock and likely anything that can be tagged with “gaze”, and the thought of Breaths slowly transitioning into some modern post-punk-like material slipped into my mind. Little did I know that Breaths would take an unexpected sidestep into the attention-grabbing heaviness that’s just as stark and deadly as its lighter counterpart which not only makes “Lined in Silver” a highly dynamic album, but one that makes its own mold and stands out in the ocean of other bands effortlessly like the North Star in a light-polluted night sky. Every single of what Breaths has accomplished here cannot be considered anything other than staggering. It all comes together almost too well as the bursts of intensity are bookended constantly and perfectly by the ethereal rock that enables these eight tracks to compile into one of the most layered debuts of its kind that I’ve heard for a very long time, and I know damn well that if the right people hear this then Breaths will quickly become the hot new name to know in many circles on Bandcamp.

I sit here and talk about falling into albums time after time, and while that is partly true for what’s happening here it’s not nearly all that there is as Breaths both grabs you by the throat and gently takes your hand to pull you into a listen that’s just fascinating to listen to by all accounts the likes of which I cannot recommend enough to anyone with an adventurous taste. Virtually every facet of “Lined in Silver” left me bewildered by what I had heard, and I can only hope that this transcendent record gets the attention and credit that it very well deserves.

“Lined in Silver” releases on March 26th!

LISTEN to advanced songs from “Lined in Silver” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Breaths on Facebook here.