Band: Pure Reason Revolution | Album: Terrifying Angels | Genre: Progressive rock, Post-rock | Year: 2026
From: London, UK | Label: InsideOut Music
For fans of: Porcupine Tree, Riverside, Phideaux
Pure Reason Revolution is a band I haven’t really kept up with. I absolutely love their debut record, The Dark Third. It’s an exciting and inventive blend of prog and post-rock with some good pop sensibilities. As someone who is a sucker for complex vocal arrangements, it’s right up my alley. I’ve checked in on them from time to time, but none of their albums since have particularly held my interest. None have been bad, by any means, but they just haven’t spoken to me.
Terrifying Angels, PRR’s seventh full-length release, is their first to really grab my attention in a while. The band has kept their signature sound, but they’ve also made some noticeable changes. This is their heaviest and most aggressive record to date, with significant alt-rock and alt-metal inclusions. My gut instinct is to call this the best Porcupine Tree record since Anno Domini High Definition, but that’s unfair to these guys, Riverside, and Porcupine Tree. It should get the general point across, though.
Things kick off with “Spin Like Fire”. A high-energy, semi-metallic riff starts the record on an exciting note. Piano and harmonized vocals add some lightness, but the tension between those two sides persists.
“Black-Arrow Acrobats” is much airier in its opening moments. It reminds me a bit of Radiohead. I really like the Mellotron flutes and the warm, rubbery bass tones. After a couple minutes, though, the band launches into a dark and heavy passage. Guitars buzz and bite, but the vocals provide a soothing balm. Electronic adornments add to the dark moments. Near the song’s midpoint, things quiet down, and the mood becomes much spacier, which makes the closing reprise of the heavy passage that much more impactful.
At under three minutes, “Haywire Heart” is the shortest song on the album. It’s a punchy and edgy little piece that packs quite the wallop. All the band’s best tendencies are distilled into a bite-size package.
The 12-minute title track comes next. Its opening passage is gentle and floating. Broad, echoing guitars and restrained percussion set a slightly-eerie scene. As the song progresses, it takes an unexpected brief industrial turn before launching into a pummeling metallic riff. This song throbs and pulses as fat, fuzzy guitars fill every inch of auditory space. The end of that particular heavy passage is a bit jarring as it leads into an electric piano passage that draws from Opeth’s early non-metallic compositions.
“Rumination Ruin” is fittingly gloomy. The drumming is especially strong here, supporting heavy riffs with impactful fills and solid propulsion. The vocal melody is catchy and shows this band’s skill at incorporating pop elements into their brand of complex, artsy rock. Following that sonic storm, “Below Radiance” is much slower and quieter. The music is gentle and delicate, but it features the most prominent electronic elements of any cut on this album, bordering on trip-hop at moments.
The album ends on its longest song, the 14-minute “Hold Your Wrath”. Things start off restrained, with a moderate tempo and a simmering tension. An electronic pulse and jangly guitar embellishments add to the richness of the sound. The song’s intensity gradually builds, but there’s still an ebb and flow. Entering the song’s second half, an off-kilter metallic riff takes the lead, eventually morphing back into the band’s signature ascendant sound. I love the way they fold together these heavy moments and electronic influence.
Terrifying Angels is a fantastic evolution in Pure Reason Revolution’s sound. Their wonderful vocal arrangements shine, as always, and their dabbling in electronic elements provide a lot of varied textures. But the real step up on this album is their increased heaviness. Even on past releases where they’d up the distortion, there usually wasn’t this level of impact. The band does an excellent job of balancing softness and heaviness, and it all results in a stellar record.
Score: 84/100
