These days, say post rock to anyone and you’ll likely get references to Mogwai and Explosions In The Sky, if they know it at all. But with Fin Fang Foom’s new LP (their forth overall and first in six years), you get something a bit more classic when it comes to the sub-genre: a clashing of post-rock and shoegaze, the drone of guitars and massive, echoing notes. It’s hard, it’s heavy, and it rocks full-force.

It’s not until the third track, “Lonely Waves”, that Fin Fang Foom takes it down a notch to your more typical soft dreamy opening. The song maintains its pleasant melody, which leads into yet another soft beginning in “Deathless”. But from there things once again increase in volume. The wind howls through guitars, a hurricane force; the percussion mimics storm-blown metalics, clanging into one another incessantly. And then it explodes into ferocity.

From there it just continues. “Exploding Coast” explodes. “Monomyth” is a legendary instrumental. This really is post-rock meets shoegaze meets bleeding ears, and despite the pain there’s an insatiable beauty.

Here I thought I lost my faith in truly loud rock. Here I thought I was doomed forever to the realm of indie pop, and its folk cousins. Even the HEALTHs of the world weren’t enough to really curb my growing discomfort with voluminously, ineffably loud rock. Fin Fang Foom proves that even with amps cranked to eleven, loud rock can be a beautiful thing.

Fin Fang Foom: Magnetic North [mp3]

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Lovitt Records [CD, 2009]

1. Magnetic North
2. Regret
3. Lonely Waves
4. Deathless
5. Exploding Coast
6. Monomyth
7. Beating The War Drum
8. Nome, Alaska
9. The Great Race Of Mercy