Are you a beardy 30-something with long hair who wears leather wristbands and rune necklaces? Well, Arbouretum’s ‘Coming Out Of The Fog’ is the album for you. The band’s fifth full-length is a sluggish drone of guitars so muddy they sound like they were recorded in a bog married to pseudo-spiritual waffling from singer Dave Heumann. ‘All At Once, The Turning Weather’, is Earth-meets-Wooden Shjips, but without either band’s overpowering sonic imagery, while ‘Oceans Don’t Sing’ is too country for comfort. One for the druid in your life, but too much of a slog for anyone else.
Robert Cooke