Three albums inward we find Millipede proprietor Joseph Davenport at his most cogitative and well-versed mode yet. It's a logical advancement, too: 2010's Full Bloom proposed a bittersweet contrast of enrapturing chords fed through grating amplifier convulsion. Realms is blanketed in a parallel feedback, but a newly dismal introspection lies beneath.
Forever in-the-red, Davenport's knack for veiling warm refrains in abrasive timbres is a feat not seized by many of his contemporaries. Much of Realms' coarseness doesn't imply menace, but rather a tenor derived from the drones themselves. Given this, the illusory setting created here seems all the more tangible; because of its outwardly organic origins, this universe feels almost within reach-- a nearly perceivable sense of comfort, barricaded by harrowing disorientation.
Opener "Heathen Horde" startlingly introduces sorrowful, rumbling keys as obscured howls ululate in the midst of the dismay: the gravest portrayal of Realms' motif. Conversely, "Magma" and "Gateway to Another World" resemble the spiraling, hectic euphoria of the earliest experiments launched from the Karl Bauer cannon. At its least captivating, "What Was True" is a light, airy detour rendered meandering when compared to the expertly pared-down, desolate guitar raga "Skyy Blue". Realms is both an advancement and fitting chapter in Millipede's discography. Davenport's overdriven atmospherics have remained in tact, yet their ambitions have widened.
[Millipede Blog]
[Stream/Buy Realms from Dead Pilot Records]
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