{"id":463256,"date":"2025-09-30T14:17:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T14:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/463256\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T14:17:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T14:17:14","slug":"we-own-the-sky-in-your-absence-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/463256\/","title":{"rendered":"we.own.the.sky – In Your Absence Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Though not all post-metal is instrumental, almost all instrumental metal bands play some variation of post-metal. One could write a riveting dissertation exploring the reasons behind this phenomenon and its implications, if one were inclined towards musical studies and history; alas, I am but a humble observer of such odd patterns and have no definitive answers. Perhaps it is part of how heavily defined by vocals many genres are; perhaps the textured and buildup-heavy nature of post-metal simply lends itself well to instrumental approaches. Greek 5-piece we.own.the.sky<\/strong> makes no effort to break the pattern on its third album In Your Absence, but as a fan of the style, I have no complaint. But it can be a devilishly tricksome affair to eschew vocals altogether without getting stale. How do the sky-owners fare?<\/p>\n

As annoyingly hip the stylization of the band name is, so expertly crafted is In Your Absence. No two songs are interchangeable, and rarely does any track feel particularly overlong. Refreshingly for instrumental post-metal, we.own.the.sky<\/strong> does not often lean on languid melancholy. Most tracks have energy and momentum, emerging through the darker, djent-adjacent notes of opener \u201cThe Urge to Prey,\u201d the effervescent bliss of \u201cEverbreathing\u201d and the feverish, drum-heavy \u201cEclipse.\u201d The structures hew further from the expansive and exploratory, aligning closer to traditional verse-chorus setups, and it makes for an immediate, accessible album like few in this style can manage.<\/p>\n

In Your Absence by we.own.the.sky<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

This is clearly a deliberate choice. Even longer tracks like \u201cSwarm\u201d and \u201cLiminal Space\u201d stay well under 8 minutes and use their extra time in buildups that return to established phrases and intelligent variations on the rich stock of melodies the guitars provide. \u201cSwarm\u201d is an especially powerful song, its gentle opening notes morphing into a grand ascending beast, the melody carried upon a shifting syncopated foundation. It\u2019s a one-two punch with the sweeping joy of \u201cEverbreathing,\u201d whose bright tremolos remind me of the most recent Alcest<\/strong>. Closer \u201cSilhouette\u201d shares that similarity, and it\u2019s the sole track that does contain vocals, which provides a warm well of emotional contrast and provides rich wonder as the album\u2019s denouement.<\/p>\n

\"\"The biggest bump in the road is \u201cFragile, Alive,\u201d a slow and gentle track that skates dangerously close to saccharine soft rock. It\u2019s smack dab in the middle of In Your Absence and is a hard stop for all the momentum built by \u201cSwarm\u201d and \u201cEverbreathing\u201d. The melody is fairly repetitive and a bit mawkish, and the track doesn\u2019t move away from it until the midway point. It\u2019s not outright bad, especially when it opens up and gains more heft, but it is the album\u2019s Achilles\u2019 heel, worsened by its central placement in the track list. Thankfully, the hard-hitting follow-up \u201cEclipse\u201d is an immediate pick-me-up, and we.own.the.sky<\/strong> return to form within seconds. Dressed with a delicious guitar tone and even-keeled mix, the production puts the cherry on the cake. It matches the compositions for an enticing, immediate sound that\u2019s as listenable as it is versatile.<\/p>\n

With In Your Absence, we.own.the.sky<\/strong> place yet another nail in the coffin of the idea that quality and fame go hand in hand. In fact, the band kicks over every assumption that crosses their path. Greek metal is known for grandeur and symphonies, yet In Your Absence is concise and introspective. Post-metal tends toward texture-heavy dreaminess, yet this is melody-driven and direct. With a decade and a half behind them and In Your Absence, their third album, under their wing, we.own.the.sky<\/strong> have proven themselves more than capable of producing music that\u2019s beautiful, transporting, and downright addictive. The world\u2019s been sleeping on this band. Don\u2019t miss out.<\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong> 3.5\/5.0
DR:<\/strong> 7 | Format Reviewed:<\/strong> PCM
Label:<\/strong> Dunk!Records<\/a>
Websites:<\/strong> weownthesky.bandcamp.com<\/a> | facebook.com\/weowntheskygr<\/a>
Releases Worldwide:<\/strong> September 19th, 2025<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Though not all post-metal is instrumental, almost all instrumental metal bands play some variation of post-metal. One could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[743,10268,32804,154917,77,10276,154918,269,28036,6080,6082,137369,16,15,154919],"class_list":{"0":"post-463256","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-743","9":"tag-3-5","10":"tag-alcest","11":"tag-dunkrecords","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-greek-metal","14":"tag-in-your-absence","15":"tag-music","16":"tag-post-metal","17":"tag-review","18":"tag-reviews","19":"tag-sep25","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom","22":"tag-we-own-the-sky"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115293680432310792","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}