Sometimes, a band that hasn’t impressed you releases an album that finally gets your attention. And sometimes, that album ends up working as a key for the rest of their discography.

I have been aware of Glassing longer than I’ve been a fan. It’s probably been two or three years since I first saw the Holy Fawn folks gushing about them on social media, rushed to see what the fuss was about, and quickly filed them in the “not for me” category. A few months ago, Twin Dream made me fall in love with the Austin trio, but my affection has been largely reserved for that album alone.

But I don’t listen on repeat very often, even to albums as monstrously lovely as Twin Dream, so I started to explore their earlier records. And as luck would have it, their third album shifted my perspective enough that the same songs that once seemed too abrasive and acerbic for me to enjoy are now hitting me just as strongly.

Set against my brief initial listens to the band, Twin Dream felt like a massive step forward. But that’s not totally fair—even Light and Death, their debut, plays with crushing bombast and subdued atmospherics in the same way. It is intensely chaotic and aggressive, often using objectively ugly sounds in its sonic palette. But even the harshest elements are used in a way that makes for a spellbinding listen. Itt would probably be pretentious to compare it to Rembrandt or Caravaggio’s heavy use of shadows, but it’s the best comparison I can make.

Subsonic blasts of distorted bass, blast beats, and screamed vocals are used extensively, while the guitar moves from angular, dissonant stabs to fiery tremolo picking to ambient washes with equal conviction. It defies even the most surgical dissection of subgenres: it could be lazily lumped in with blackgaze, but there’s a lot more going on. Tarry swatches of sludge metal, industrial harshness, hardcore fury, and metalcore dissonance mingle alongside glistening post rock and billowing shoegaze textures.

And while a lot of bands are mixing similar elements together (see also: Rolo Tomassi, Møl, Brutus, and yes, Holy Fawn), most often these bands usually switch between these different genre conventions. Glassing somehow plays all of them at the same time. The brutal blitzkrieg of opener “Life Ruiner” is as spacious as it is caustic. “Safe Hate” is as melodic as it is crushing. “Heavy Donor” pulls back the tempo, but is no less dangerous than the faster tracks. Even the more subdued and soaring moments in the later half are blended with acerbic screamed vocals. Closer “Memorial” is unpredictable and chaotic, switching between blistering beatdowns and sparse rung-out chords, but it never sounds unfocused.

Even compared to Twin Dream, Light and Death is a staggering work that feels far more monumental than its thirty-six-minute run time. It’s worth every ounce of the hype I had heard, even if it took me a few years to get the memo. Now to just find a copy of Painted Horse…