It's finally here! Two years after Iridescent, the album that grew on me so much to the point where I was in love with them, we have another Silent Planet album on our hands. SUPERBLOOM spawned from the band's experience with a car crash while on the road, one that was visceral enough to completely change their perspective and sound.
The singles for this album were insane. Antimatter, Collider and Anunnaki were all top tier cuts, and they kept :Signal: from last year as well, so I went into the album with pretty high expectations. Not going to lie, it was just a tiny bit underwhelming at first. I hadn't realised how much they shifted gears from their more technical releases to this more atmospheric one. On first listen, my brain was looking out for the tasty riffs and crazy vocals, which really wasn't the right thing to be looking for on this album. Eventually the album grew on me after listening to it enough where I realised what was the focus of the album.
SUPERBLOOM is, in some way, one of the most spiritual works they've made. Compared to the heavily anti-industrial and anti-war sentiments of their previous works, this is much more personal. They've taken their poetic sensibilities and channelled it into one of the rawest topics possible, the self, no doubt there's some really great lines in there.
Sonically, the album definitely traded off a bit of heaviness for melody, but it is a much welcome change. Garrett going for pure cleans on this album has been amazing to hear, and the focus on atmosphere and ambience fits the idea of the album really well. There's no shortage of heavy moments and screams, but it's a more diverse palette with more to offer as an album experience. The more prominent use of electronic elements also plays a big part, most notably on Antimatter, but they've done a great job of introducing this surreal feel to their songs with it.
I do want to argue that the non-singles were a bit underwhelming, compared to the singles. Even outside of the expectations of their sound based on their previous releases, the non-singles lack a bit of cohesiveness to them, something that feels a bit weird to hear from a band I've cherished for how complete and refined their songs feel. Offworlder's breakdown just keeps going without evolving, The Overgrowth doesn't hold any of its sections long enough and feels like an interlude, and two tracks are actual interludes. Weirdly enough, I feel like they would've benefited from lengthening those songs and letting the parts play out and evolve more. Nexus is alright but it doesn't feel the most Silent Planet-like. The title track is really the only non-single that I feel even matched the quality of the singles, and even that song ended a bit abruptly.
I kept thinking that I didn't really like the album because I kept leaving out the singles in my equation, but overall it's still a banger album by far. It's just that the non-singles didn't do as much for me as I hoped. I love that the band is heading in this direction though, Antimatter was perfect and a good sign for where they're headed with this new sound, it just needs a little more refinement and thought around the edges. And of course, I wouldn't complain if a bit of their technicality came back. Poetry-core is still on point, though.
Rating: 8/10