Alaska have a pretty interesting dynamic to them. As throaty and shouty as their post-hardcore/screamo brand gets (which really throws back to Leer), their guitar-intricate style shapes a beautiful musical canopy. Shimmery, dream-like and very evocative. Shrine marks their return after two years of traveling, writing and recalibrating their bearings. And it's a great stroke because they paint the album with broad strokes of what made them appeal early on in their careers while adding new influences and a reflective nature of life that comes with aging.

Most of the songs are patterned from a lovely, slow lull into a quick, riffy guitars. A lot of the album feels like toe meets Tiny Moving Parts in terms of guitar structures and the rapid dynamic Alaska love to peddle. "Hashish Christo" is a fine example of this. Then you've got tracks like "Slowburner", layered over the same indie/post-rock canvas but with a vocal attribute tuned a la Touche Amore meets La Dispute. Sam Pura's production feels very liberal and fluid. It's to this extent Alaska end up coming off more experimental than before. Rough-sounds well balanced with polished tinges from time to time (see "Beach Houser"). That said, each track sounds very different from the next.  Despite all the existential woe mixed into the lyrics, Shrine feels like a silver lining, especially on the grating slow tracks. "We Think Of The Leader" is one of these, instrumental yet fitting to cap proceedings creatively, explicitly and expressively. The unifying themes and artistic variety on tap give the album a sense of almost uplifting continuity in the midst of a lyrical endeavor that is feverishly sad. And profoundly intense. Recommended.