Arcane Roots

Melancholia Hymns

eASy Life/ReD eSSenTiAL Proggy drama from the ambitious Brit trio. It’s all about the atmosphere for Kingston Upon Thames threepiece Arcane Roots, whose second album has a sense of scope and grandiosity that places them somewhere between the prog theatricality of Muse and the lush sonic tapestries of Sigur Rós, except they’re subtler, fresher and ultimately much less ludicrous than either of those bands.

It’s been a four-year wait for the follow-up to Blood & Chemistry, and they’ve clearly used that time to learn all there is to know about electronic instrumentation, with skittish beats and swells of synths providing a dramatic foil to frontman Andrew Groves’ high, keening vocals and the meaty, no-nonsense rock riffs at the heart of all the bluster.

One moment they’re raging on a string-laden Apt, the next they’re building a more subtle kind of tension on the creepingly sinister Fireflies. In keeping with its long gestation period, this is music built to last.

emma Johnston