Swansea’s a strange place.

“Our revels now have ended”, uttered Prospero in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Every Time I Die frontman and lyricist Keith Buckley knows of this darkness.

As spacious and patient as sludge metal comes, Kowloon Walled City’s Piecework is an effortlessly unique return from the underrated California band.

If there’s a trend to be observed within post-rock (a style that’s generally immune to trends and fashions) it’s the emergence of melodrama as the genre’s defining emotional register.

While metal has long held a fascination with the esoteric and philosophical, few bands in the genre display the same level of erudition as At The Gates