As a post rock fan, I’ve heard a lot of my fellow fans complaining the last several years about how there aren’t any good post rock albums coming out. I have generally dismissed this as your typical “old man yells at cloud” grumpiness. After all, there’s been tons of recent post rock that I’ve absolutely loved.

But then, I heard The Machine is burning and now everyone knows it can happen again by French post rock/modern classical quartet BRUIT≤ (French for “noise”). This record is so great that for a second, I understood what they might have been talking about.

I’ve spoken at length before about the different corners of post rock. In one corner, you have the cinematic climax chasing of Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky. Another corner is more cerebral and grooving, like Tortoise. Then there’s the avant-garde amorphousness of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and the sweeping orchestration of MONO. There’s some overlap, to be sure, but typically, post rock bands will follow the general ethos of one of these camps without straying much into the others.

But on The Machine is burning…, BRUIT≤ proves themselves to be devout disciples of all strains of post rock. There are moments of Godspeed’s horror movie atmospherics and apocalyptic spoken word samples (a monologue about environmentalism and industrialism in “Amazing Old Tree” is especially harrowing). There are bits of cascading bells that are reminiscent of moments on Tortoise’s TNT. Lush strings a la MONO swell over synthesizers and guitars. Walls of distorted guitar that would make This Will Destroy You proud crush all of it to bits.

Not only is The Machine is burning… reminiscent of these classic post rock albums, but it’s just as monumental in stature. It might be recency bias, but it feels just as statuesque as Lift Yr Skinny Fists or Young Team, employing the same emotional resonance without feeling like a carbon copy. This is maybe the best new post rock album I’ve heard in ten years. And if history is kind to BRUIT≤, this record will be remembered alongside the classics of the genre as a positively monolithic statement.