A few weeks back I was trying to sell my Sigur Ros box set and someone in a vinyl forum on Facebook inquired about it. The price was too high, but he said, “since you like post rock so much, you should check out EF.”

So I hopped on Spotify and gave it a listen.

The Sigur Ros comparison is immediately obvious at the arpeggiating piano lines of album opener Bells Bleed & Bloom. But then…it never really comes up again. Instead, EF catches on fire. Starting with Yield, Heart! Yield the electric guitars take the rest of the album, backed by a drummer that just will not quit. After the first track, the only thing EF has in common with Sigur Ros is that they are both post rock bands with singers. While the songs here regularly stretch past eight minutes, Ceremonies spends most of its time constructing sophisticated songs made of interlocking parts rather than swelling, climaxing, and falling–more Mogwai by way of The Appleseed Cast than GY!BE.

But most importantly, this album is visceral. Not quite into post-metal territory (it flirts a little bit with Pelican in a couple spots), but these Swedes go for the gut. Tracks like Lake Vaettern and Delusions of Grandeur are heavy in mood and sonics with a nervous side of foreboding. And all this without relying on pounding chords or Explosions in the Sky-style detonations. Rather, their toolbox is filled with mood-makers like longing trumpets and softly-sung vocals juxtaposed with chiming guitar riffs and stuttering snare fills. And EF certainly knows how to use those implements to great effect, and they mold Ceremonies into the eye of a hurricane, a deceitful tranquility in the center of chaos and destruction.