By L.C. Mason
Just like Robert Johnson before them, the members of the Appleseed Cast have wandered down the dusty, corpse-littered back trails and offered up their souls at the crossroads. Just imagine those byways littered with furiously touring indie rock bands and the crossroads placed at the junction of emo and post-rock, rather than the Delta blues and early rock ‘n’ roll.
Having perfected its cross-pollinated style of dreamy guitar rock, the Appleseed Cast has shifted from the overtly emo vocals of previous albums to ones that are now awash in gauzy distortion. Their musical landscapes are drawn in more lush detail than before. Nowhere are these improvements heard more clearly than on Sagarmatha (Vagrant), which comes out Feb. 17.