Once in a while, I finally decide to try a band I’ve known forever but have never heard. Oh Hiroshima’s latest hit my inbox and I though, “Why not?” Turns out, I love their sound. And the Dead Tree Gives No Shelter released back on June 5^th.

Oh Hiroshima comes to us from Sweden. They’ve been active for over 15 years, yet I’ve never taken the plunge until now. The band consists of Jakob Hemström on guitars, bass, vocals, and synth, and Oskar Nilsson on drums. Cover art is by Benedikt Demmer.

They play post-rock, to put it bluntly, but it doesn’t sound like the dime-a-dozen post-rock bands out there. No, for one thing, they use vocals. For another, their album is far more cinematic and varied. There are many moments you’ll forget they’re a post-rock band at all. They balance guitars and synth nicely, but always focus on rhythm, flow, and melody. In fact, I don’t recall many crescendos on this album, which is definitely something post-rock overutilizes.

Some of this can be explained by the themes of the record. And the Dead Tree Gives No Shelter uses the poetry of T.S. Eliot to express dissatisfaction with the way we treat the world and each other. It’s the rich man at the top of the ruins, so to speak. If we don’t seek to be lifegivers, if we don’t nurture the tree, eventually it will die and we will find ourselves without everything the tree provided.

The themes fashion an album that relishes melancholy, creates soundscapes that feel arid until the band waters them with melody and liquid flow. They build layer upon layer, each one adding a sense of hope. The album is often somber, but also organic and sincere, and there’s just something about the rhythms and harmonies that make me feel like everything’s going to be alright, even if the situation looks dire now.

The album has eight tracks and is about 46 minutes long. It’s extremely consistent from beginning to end. We start with “Servant of All”, a wistful piece with a pleasingly plodding tempo, and it’s off that gait that they build splendor carefully and meaningfully. The same is true for “Meridian”, an early favorite with its subtle Middle Eastern motifs, building atmosphere, and riffy ending. Every accent, every subtle addition, is purposeful.

I love where the band goes next with “Angelos”, front-loaded with energy until it transitions into a pensive piece with a gentle piano melody. I love the flow of it all. The first half ends with “Skeleton Key”, a grittier, bassier song that has some real drive as it progresses. Somehow, it still feels somewhat spectral even as it’s the heaviest song on the record.

The second half contains my favorite track. That would be “Tree of Life”. It doesn’t seem like much at first. It has some gentle Far Eastern influence in its main rhythm, and it slowly grows in volume and atmosphere, but in the center it becomes a whole new piece with heavy percussion, gorgeous violins, and this marching tempo around which swirls light and beauty. I absolutely adore it. “Broken Sunlight” follows with a skeletal, eerie synth rhythm at its core. I love the slower parts with the heavy bass groove the most, though.

The final two tracks are outstanding. “Ivory Town” is reserved and cautious. It only increases in aura, like light growing brighter in shades. It feels sad, like mourning lost beauty in this world, and I love the echoing piano portions. It’s an underappreciated track, I think, but so exquisite. The closer “Exit Cloud” is such a cool song. It has plenty of energy and sparks of violin and cinema, and it explodes in guitars and power, the one true climactic crescendo on the album. Yet it makes me feel like “there’s a way to fix it all”, if you know what I mean.

Oh Hiroshima have a meaningful, excellent album on their hands. And the Dead Tree Gives No Shelter will give new nuance and treasure upon each listen, not to mention a good dose of hope, and it is as moving to the heart as it is to the head. It is growing on me more and more.

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