Nearly a year ago I wrote a single review for “Cave,” the third track on Learning How To Talk. I’m as excited now as I was then for Mess’ style of post-rock; a quiet-loud-quiet equation that hits every nerve. A bombastic symphony of thundering drums, riveting guitars, and Allison Gliesman’s crystal clear vocals are an emotional avalanche, growing and growing with every note. There’s an immense beauty in an intense pain; a rhythm slow-burn which leads to a flurried strumming (“Godsend”) or a gorgeous duet (“Whole Again”) with softly delivered bookends (“Becoming” and “Boston”) that still have all the rhapsodic resonance of their more grandiose counterparts. Learning How To Talk is a shimmering light in a desolate darkness; an ambush of the senses drawing you ever closer till it swallows you whole.

Favorite Tracks: “Dead Space,” “Drown,” & “Whole Again”

Editor’s note: Mess play the Rino this Saturday in Kansas City.