Caspian – Caspian
Release Date: 16th October 2026
Label: Wax Bodega
Bandcamp
Genre: Instrumental Post-Orgasm Cigarette Rock
FFO: Ranges, Explosions in the Sky, Mono, If These Trees Could Talk, This Will Destroy You.
Review By: John Newlands
Cast your mind back to the 1980s or 90s. You’ve just tried garlic bread, a fajita, or haggis pakora for the first time and you’re obsessed.
You dream of garlic butter because plain Hovis just doesn’t cut it anymore. You buy a sombrero and grow a shite moustache and dream about smearing mashed avocado all over…something. Or you camp outside your local Indian takeaway, waiting for it to open at 4pm, day after day, just to get your fix of spicy, battered haggis balls.
None of this happened to me. It never happened. OK?!
So, you hammer the life out of these things because they’re just so goddamn good. Then one day you realise it’s become too much. It’s like Jagged Little Pill. You’re not being ironic, and you’ve got haggis pakora in your pocket. You need to stop before you ruin it. Just like MTV did to everything in the 90s.
That was my experience with Caspian by Caspian.
When Metal Epidemic overlord Dave gifted me this gem over a month ago, I became an addict. I rinsed this album back-to-back for several weeks before managing to cut it down to once a day. Then, like it was No Nut November, I stopped myself listening altogether. I had on a Caspian chastity belt.
Until I couldn’t take it anymore. I needed more Caspian in my earholes.
If you can’t tell, it all got a bit silly at one point. In the last month I’ve even joined a Caspian fan page on Facebook called Crawlspace, where a bunch of lovely folk have been getting more and more hyped, and informed me of fun facts, like that track two, Far Country, has been appearing in the band’s live sets for quite some time under the working title “Burnt Reynolds”. These people have been eagerly anticipating this record, and I’m delighted for them that it absolutely delivers everything that they want.
I’ve got into the band since around 2013 and have followed them ever since. The Massachusetts quintet have become staples of the post-rock community and have consistently evolved their sound through additional instrumentation, textures and subtle experimentation.
With Caspian, however, the band seem to have set out to create the perfect classic instrumental post-rock album. There’s no need for gimmicks, off-piste detours or boundary-pushing. Instead, they focus on what they do best, incredible (classic but not cheesy) melodies, crushing yet ethereal guitar work and textures capable of making you headbang, break your heart, or fill your chest with a feeling of majestic beauty that’s difficult to put into words.
The album flows effortlessly. Opener Hiraeth is poignant and beautiful, while Far Country feels righteous and majestic. Remain delivers the shimmering textures and tremolo-picked guitars that define the genre before the mighty A Great Fire crashes in, moody and powerful, driven by an awesome dirty bassline. No One Left to Tell excels through its tension and release, while guitar ditty Waltz for the End closes the album on a note that feels both sombre and hopeful and just god damned pretty.
A shout-out is deserved for the production too. It’s so natural and perfectly judged for this style of music. It gives the songs exactly what they need and nothing they don’t.
Have Caspian made what I consider the perfect classic instrumental post-rock album with this self-titled release? Quite possibly, yes.
If you can’t tell, I absolutely love this thing. Now my only problem is trying not to overplay it.
(5 / 5)
