On paper, Thought Forms have everything going for them. Having attracted a following due to the intensity of their dark drone-rock, in their early stages the West Country trio received support from Geoff Barrow, who signed them to his Invada Records imprint, as well as Portishead’s touring bassist Jim Barr – who produced their 2012 sophomore Ghost Mountain.

But where Ghost Mountain excelled in creating a striking soundscape, with its spectral atmosphere and half-submerged, low-feedback doom rock, too often new album Songs About Drowning sinks to the bottom of your stomach in the form of a frustrated and foggy sigh. That being said, there are moments where the album rises to the surface; namely, Charlie Romijn’s vocals on The Bridge and slow-paced, jazzy number Aeaea, where a clever brass arrangement collapses into a sea of distortion. There are also powerful lyrics here (“your name is written on the inside of my eyes”) which leave a heavy imprint in the listener’s mind, while tracks like Inland demonstrate a clever grasp of dynamics that make you feel like you’re in a half-conscious state of delirium. But with its plodding pace, remaining in that headspace throughout Songs About Drowning can feel like a test of endurance.

Gunseli Yalcinkaya