Dust Moth is a nocturnal juggernaut gravitating towards the light—a restless collective of Seattle art rock veterans injecting beauty and femininity into their wall-of-sound dirges. Across the span of their seven year existence, the band has metamorphosed as it’s gained and shed members, cocooning for seasons at a time and reemerging as a further evolved and refined form. The process has been slow and steady, but the core DNA has always held the code for their distinctive sound—authoritative syncopated drums, thick bass lines, ethereal keyboards, Ryan Frederiksen’s spacious guitar melodies, and Irene Barber’s haunting and commanding vocals. With their sophomore album, Rising/Sailing, bassist Steve Becker and drummer Jim Acquavella have elevated past effort’s steady downbeat pulse with a backbeat thrust, giving the album a locked-in groove that replicates Zeppelin’s drive to be both sensual and authoritative. For Frederiksen and Barber, the strength of a new rhythm section allowed them to scale back on the saturated layers of guitar and keyboards, opening a deep dimensional sonic space and giving their songs space to breath.

The change in personnel and chemistry had a significant impact on Dust Moth’s sound, to the point where a name change was considered. “For the first few years of the band, people popped in and out and left little bits of themselves in the music so it feels like it took a while for the band to come into its own identity,” Frederiksen says. In that time they toured with Boston’s esteemed avant garde metallurgists Kayo Dot and post-metal luminaries Mustard Gas & Roses, ran through multiple pressings of their debut EP Dragon Mouth and first full-length Scale, and eventually watched the dissolution of their previous label Mylene Sheath (Caspian, If These Trees Could Talk, Pelican). But the musical evolution and business roadblocks ultimately didn’t alter Dust Moth’s sonic vision of creating something that felt narcotic and dreamlike in its harmonic content, but aggressive and muscular in its delivery. The name stuck.

Rising/Sailing was recorded by former bandmate Matt Bayles (Minus the Bear, Mastodon, ISIS) at renowned Seattle studio London Bridge with overdubs at Ex Ex and Studio Litho. The mixing was then handled by Erik Blood (Shabazz Palaces, Moondoggies, THEESatisfaction). Bayles expertly captures the heft, throb, and drive of the band while Blood brightens and refines the aural palette of Dust Moth to a triggering point for chromesthesia. Album opener “Annular Eclipse” sets the tone, with Frederiksen’s weeping slide guitar and Barber’s yearning vocals offset by Becker’s rumbling distorted bass and Acquavella’s stomping kick patterns and nimble hi-hat work. It feels like a punch to the stomach both physically and emotionally, a testament to the brawn and heart behind their music. The first half of the album winds down with “Other Worlds” where the band further demonstrates the broad spectrum of their sound, with banks of synths and woozy delay-drenched guitars creating a somber minor key symphony before making a subtle shift into major key dream pop at the halfway point of the song. The latter half of the album swings back into high gear with the oozy riffage, sultry vocals, and commanding force of “Flinching.” The band vacillates between its airy and beguiling charms (“Melted Monuments”), tightly wound austerity (“Motor”), and epic lush pay-offs (“I’m Not Anyone”). The end result is a journey that’s both elevating and crushing.