Two years older, ages wiser, and picking up, somewhat where they left off, Boise, Idaho’s Ealdor Bealu has released the follow up to Dark Water at the Foot of the Mountain.

Collectively compiling their next, what can only be called vision, Spirit of the Lonely Places slightly shifts gears for those who were fans of Dark Water. Although, arguably less ornate than its predecessor, Spirit packs the heavy punch we’ve come to appreciate from Ealdor Belau. Honing in on tracks that just break the six and a half minute mark up through the nine minute, twenty-one second “Isolation” the sophomore release bares its teeth and grins a wicked smile in a massive wall-of-sound array that leans slightly more to the easily digestible for those on the fence.

Departing the ambient drifting of Dark Water at the Foot of the Mountain, Spirit of the Lonely Places takes a more straight-line approach to the aggressive psych sounds. In doing so the essence of Spirit is firmly arranged in the collective and is hard to piece out. As the name would imply, Spirit of the Lonely Places embodies a deep recessed, ominous at times, persona that borders the recesses of sleep state and nods to what is becoming their signature heavy psych-rock. Five tracks capping off with the fantastic nearly nine minute “The Four Horsemen”, Ealdor Belau have set in motion a strong base that is sure to please fans of the genre.  To sum it up simply, Spirit of the Lonely Places is meant for piercing light in dark rooms of their own creation while making one look inward for answers.  

In the dusty fallout of a generations prior, influenced by the wandering obscure likes of Jim Morrison, coming upon the likes of Spirit of the Lonely Places was just a matter of time. Not in the sense of recreating The Doors, but more in the vein of ambient, perhaps slightly unnerving, quests confronting inner demons in the vast, unyielding landscape of audible concoctions. Like the dark visions of the often misunderstood, if only in glimpses throughout, Ealdor Bealu ride upon a poetic shadow that ties an almost uncomfortable self-confrontation with a beauty in the darkness. They find the Spirit of the Lonely Places.

Greg is a co-founder and regular contributor of Nanobot Rock