{"id":189284,"date":"2025-12-17T12:07:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T12:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/189284\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T12:07:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T12:07:11","slug":"review-feather-mountain-a-liminal-step","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/189284\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Feather Mountain – A Liminal Step"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Published by Christopher<\/a> on December 16, 2025December 16, 2025<\/p>\n

\"\"Album art by: Arie Fasant<\/a><\/p>\n

Style: progressive metal, djent (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: The Contortionist, Tesseract, Ihlo<\/a>, Ions <\/a>
Country: Denmark
Release date: 27 November 2025<\/p>\n

When I ask you to think of the most influential bands in progressive metal, your mind probably wanders straight to the likes of Tool, Dream Theater, and Opeth, and rightly so. But those artists had their heyday in the nineties and early aughts, and there\u2019s been a whole generation of influential artists since. The likes of Between the Buried and Me, Leprous, and Haken mark the new fan favourites whose effect on up-and-coming groups is palpable. But among contemporary acts, possibly the band with the most outsized influence on the genre is The Contortionist. The progressive deathcore-ish group reinvented themselves with 2014\u2019s Language, a more ambient record that traversed the fringes of djent but was largely defined by heady atmospheric synths and gossamer soft singing. The album became an instant classic and copycats abounded. I\u2019ve reviewed more than a few myself in my tenure here, and today we have another denizen of the microgenre.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Danish quartet Feather Mountain broke through the substrata in 2022 with To Exit a Maelstrom, a cathartic record about Alzheimer\u2019s which was deeply personal for founding brothers, the Dahl-Blumenbergs. Clearly rooted in a similar blend of breathy vocals and full-throated riffs to The Contortionist, Feather Mountain fuse synth and progressive metal influences that flirt with djent while never becoming inundated by it. They also boast that the record utilises \u201celectronic avant garde\u201d elements, and I am begging bands to learn what avant-garde actually means because in this case it seems to mean there are synths. Nevertheless, will Feather Mountain\u2019s liminal step be in the right direction?<\/p>\n

The answer is, it\u2019s hard to evaluate. We\u2019ll get into the positives shortly, but there\u2019s one glaring issue we need to get out of the way first because it mars the entire record: A Liminal Step sounds as flat as a sojourn into the second dimension. A clear lack of dynamic range means that every instrument on A Liminal Step is clear on its own but muffled by its neighbour. In the heaviest sections, with riffs, dubstep-ish moments, vocals and drums all vying for space, the problem really makes itself known, muddying ostensibly cool instrumentation into a staticky soup. This means that moments that should be sonic centerpieces, like the wall-of-sound synths and pulsating drumwork that open \u201cPrayer Wall\u201d, become the auditory equivalent of faceplanting into the pillowy belly of a really sweaty guy in a moshpit; soft but not necessarily inviting. Similarly, the weighty grooves on \u201cRope Me In\u201d should hit hard as hell, but they sit in the middle of the mix without the bass necessary to ground them and ultimately sound vaguely flatulent. When the track explodes into a blast-beat climax, it just sounds staticky. A Liminal Step isn\u2019t badly produced by any means; it just sounds muted.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s a shame, because Feather Mountain show strong promise on the compositional front. \u201cSigil\u201d opens the record in style, with a strong chorus hook, expressive drum work, and a sick breakdown section that hurls angular riffs at dubstep-y synth work. Meanwhile the mammoth Zimmerian orchestral swells on \u201cPrayer Wall\u201d contrast the restrained verses with an awe-inspiring grandiosity (or, at least, it should sound awe-inspiringly grandiose). Mikkel Lohmann\u2019s softer clean vocals can be rather reminiscent of Michael Lessard at times, as is the sprinkle of vocoder he utilises, but he also hits on some more Dan Tompkins-esque vocal acrobatics at times, such as in the uplifting crescendo section on \u201cPrayer Wall\u201d. Finale \u201cThe Hedonist\u201d features some glimmering synths and choral work for a sense of exotic flavour over the djenting riffs though, once again, it\u2019s hard to fully enjoy them in the flatness of the mix. Meanwhile, I\u2019m not so sure of the percussionless \u201cThe Grid\u201d, which centres around ambient synths that give way to a rather unexpected shred solo (still sans percussion), but I can imagine that a well-produced version of this idea would be a rather satisfying interludinal track.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Feather Mountain\u2019s step into liminality certainly lives up to its name, with one leg in some pretty interesting composition, and the other inadvertently kicking the mixing deck and fucking up the levels. While a perfect mix wouldn\u2019t make for a perfect album, it would allow the buried strengths demonstrated across A Liminal Step to properly assert themselves. There\u2019s a very nice little djentle prog metal group buried somewhere in here, just a few more steps.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Recommended tracks: Sigil, Prayer Wall, Sunder
You may also like: Soulsplitter<\/a>, Karmanjakah<\/a>, Sullen<\/a>
Final verdict: 6\/10<\/p>\n

Related links: Bandcamp<\/a> | Facebook<\/a> | Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n

Label: Independent<\/p>\n

Feather Mountain is:
\u2013 Andreas Dahl-Blumenberg (bass)
\u2013 Christian Dahl-Blumenberg (drums)
\u2013 Christoffer Warming (guitars)
\u2013 Mikkel Aaen Lohmann (vocals and keyboards)<\/p>\n

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