We Lost the Sea - A Single Flower

Angry Metal Guy 50

How do you follow up an album born from tragedy? While the Sydney collective We Lost the Sea began as a mammoth post-metal band with standout releases like Crimea and The Quietest Place on Earth, renowned for uncompromising weight and tantalizing patience, the tragic death of vocalist Chris Torpey silenced them, taking its teeth in the process. Grief embodied its 2015 album, not devastating for the notes and tempos that commanded it, but rather what it symbolized. Comprised of instrumental elegies to failed acts of heroism and sacrifice, Departure Songs served as both a beautiful post-rock album with an intriguing theme and a knack for instrumental hooks, as well as an homage to Torpey.

Because of this, 2019 follow-up Triumph & Disaster was doomed for disingenuousness, regardless of its quality. We Lost the Sea set out on its own path in a concept album devoted to apocalypse via climate disaster, employing many of the same tricks with more bite, but to an unfocused and inconsistent degree that landed its singles in EOY territory but its supporting cast as mediocre at best. Six years later, we’re graced with A Single Flower, an ode to revolution and defiance in its trademark groove and crescendo-laden patience. Much of it lands in Post-Rock 101, in line with the likes of Mono, God is an Astronaut, and Eluvium, with steadily building crescendos as the backbone while twinkly guitars guide the journey to crunchy metallic explosions, with some ugliness for contrast. While nowhere near the likes of its early discography, A Single Flower is a welcome improvement, as We Lost the Sea distances itself from its tragic past.

A Single Flower by We Lost The Sea

If A Single Flower is Post-Rock 101, then opener “If They Had Hearts” is the syllabus. Nearly nine minutes of steadily building twinkling, with its ugly metallic hit at the end of it all being an easy highlight. But by and large, the cuts that rely on this formula run the risk of being a weaker version of “A Gallant Gentleman” from Departure Songs, (“Bloom (Murmurations at First Light)”), that their solid songwriting and gentle crescendos are derailed by excessive length’s meandering consequences. Otherwise, appearances of anachronistic instrumentals add a jolt of confusion, such as electronic beats (“Everything Here is Black and Blinding”) and industrial harshness (“A Dance With Death”). Then there’s the elephant in the room that closer “Blood Will Have Blood” is twenty-six minutes long, which is too long despite however rebellious and driving its almost punk-like rhythms suggest.

Flowery textures are post-rock’s kryptonite, but tension between harmony eeriness is where it succeeds – and A Single Flower is no exception. While the textured plucking is a motif that courses through nearly every moment, riding the line between haunting and sanguine is a signature that elevates it. This taut dynamic gives the album a much more nuanced dynamic that recalls Godspeed You! Black Emperor, with its climactic and chaotic metal apexes recalling the collisions of agony and beauty that acts like Milanku or Audrey Fall (“A Dance With Death,” the conclusion of “Everything Here is Black and Blinding”). Terse drumming and textures of noise add to that thread of ugliness that adds contrast to the more crystalline movements, a constantly shifting palette (“Blood Will Have Blood”).

We Lost the Sea has released an imperfect album that successfully distances itself from the shadow of its more iconic past. Incorporating more of a metal presence than Departure Songs while streamlining the effort beyond the inconsistent Triumph & Disaster, A Single Flower manages to balance meditation and urgency neatly. It has its moments of post-rock paper-thin crescendo-core, and there are choices within that end up being head scratchers – and I would be remiss to neglect the album’s dummy long hour and twenty runtime – but We Lost the Sea finally feels like who they wanted to be beyond tragedy and its aftermath. Thus, A Single Flower owes its staying power more to what it represents than the instruments its contributors jam on. It suggests a good trajectory – and sometimes that’s all you need.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Bird’s Robe Records
Websites: welostthesea.bandcamp.com | welostthesea.com | facebook.com/welostthesea
Releases Worldwide: July 4th, 2025

The post We Lost the Sea – A Single Flower Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.