When each member of your three-piece band suffers career-halting hand injuries consecutively, then your label collapses, and then just as alt-rock giants Tool ask you to tour the States with them your visa runs out, you might take that as a sign to give up. Napier’s revered post-rockers, Jakob didn’t though. They persevered and they persevered some more, and eight years on from the most difficult of births, Sines was born.
Jeff Boyle’s dizzyingly delayed, swirling guitar work is again the focal point of the band’s signature sound but it’s more intricate than ever here. The complexity and texture of his guitar, especially on the more sprawling tracks like the epic ‘Resolve’, are capable of wholly enveloping you and spitting you out minutes later with no recollection of the lost time in between. More than just being a showcase for improved musicianship, Sines sees the band look further afield for inspiration. New instruments and sounds like enveloping strings on ‘Emergent’ and fragile piano in ‘Darkness’ add much more to the music while taking nothing away from the bands identity.
Other highlights include opening track ‘Blind Them with Silence’, which closes with a freakishly good Tool impression. A hat-tip maybe to the tour they finally got to complete with their heroes in 2011. A highlight surely, in what had to be a frustrating few years. Though they must certainly be due some good luck, Jakob continue to prove they aren’t a band that needs it.
