Strelitzia - Winter Review
Strelitzia's debut album is one of my most revered albums of the year. Combining elements of Prog, Math, and Emo into an emotional story with equally impacting instrumentation. A true masterpiece.
Strelitzia have released their first music in 7 years with their new album Winter. It's quite a wait for a debut album from their first EP, but that wait only adds to the enchantment and atmosphere surrounding it. Strelitzia build upon their first EP, utilizing math rock riffs and licks with odd time signatures. However, add more maturity and emotionally impacting moments to create a piece of art that ascends any simple qualifier you can give to it.
The energy and craftsmanship that went into creating Winter is wildly apparent. It is hard to quantify what is achieved here – a beautiful masterpiece, taking you on a journey of strife, grief, and longing. This story of heartbreak and loss led through turbulent highs and somber lows shows off the musicianship and creativity of Strelitzia in full force.
Strelitzia have many motifs of ‘traditional’ or ‘popular’ emo music (which I need to put into quotes because both those descriptors are still niche as is). Those include a sort of indulgence in the melancholy, advanced with guitar-driven melodies that go alongside the vocals. This is especially prevalent in math rock because, well, that’s why we enjoy math rock so much, for the fun, glistening, intricate guitar parts.
What sets Strelitzia’s Winter apart is the progressiveness of this album. There is a distinct lack of traditional song structures, over half of the songs are 6 minutes or greater, and they explore multiple ideas in just one song. All of these are aspects put into this album creating a combination of prog rock and emo. Take the 10-minute centerpiece ballad of “Sara”, which uses all those examples in a slow-building epic to leave a lasting impression. A falter of math rock is the song is sometimes too simplistic, only focused on one idea or riff throughout. Strelitzia fleshes out their ideas but never dwells on them, moving on once they feel ready. All of this lends way to a math rock album that is much more grandiose in scale and ambiance than anything before it.
The ambient parts may be the most powerful points on the album. They never feel drawn out or long, but rather completely immersed in the moment. When incorporating the roaring highs of emotional release like “Digital Spliff (Bees?!)” the lows are sizably lower—a manner in which Strelitzia understands perfectly. The closing track “Epilogue” is stripped back and echo-y and fills the room – and this mournful moment is captured as a perfect ending. Better felt than any words can describe.
Overall Strelitzia’s album is catchy. It’s emotional. And it pushes the boundaries of math rock. They hook you in with the ear-scratching twinkly emo riffs and tear your heart out with the storytelling. Every listen-through is more impactful than the last. Something new appears to me, and I wonder why I didn’t catch this little moment of beauty before.