Altar Of Plagues - Mammal (2011)
An impressive Irish atmospheric black metal/post-metal band. The album consists of four lengthy tracks, three of them over the ten-minute mark, but I never found myself loosing interest at any point. Their immensely powerful sound and impressive arrangements are enough to keep you hooked throughout. The real highlight though of the album is 'When the Sun Drowns in the Ocean' which contains some chilling vocal samples and has an almost industrial feel to it production-wise.
Lanterns On The Lake - Gracious Tide, Take Me Home (2011)
Wow I'm loving this. An incredibly beautiful album released on Bella Union from this Newcastle band. Their sound is awash with incredibly beautiful instrumentation including violins, pianos, some gently-picked guitars and all topped off with some gorgeous female vocals. Fans of Beach House and Sigur Ros will love this.