[Bandcamp Undercover] Ijolite – Post Mortem of a Life

By Prog Sphere on December 3, 2019

There has been quite a lot head-bashing in which category to place this record. It is based on my own perception of the Ijolite’s music to categorize the solo project by multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Dustin Rudy under the avant-prog label, as avantgarde and progressive elements are the most prominent here. After spent hours of listening to Post Mortem of a Life, the project’s sophomore full-length outing, I’ve been thinking quite a lot about the albums that could be considered as the saviors of the progressive metal genre in 2019. From all the albums that could be counted on the fingers of one hand, it was exactly Post Mortem of a Life that met the full criteria for being the genre’s messiah. And that includes following:

rhythm
melody
harmony
tempo
dynamics
timbre
textures
form

There are no many albums that succeed in mixing seemingly incompatible elements. Ijolite’s Post Mortem of a Life is one of these rarities and therefore it deserves to be hailed as one of the best records released in 2019, but also in last few years. It will be interesting to hear what comes next.