Red Sparowes' slow-burning recipe of quiet-through-loud is anything but original, but the way the ingriedients blend is totally unique and gradually bewildering. It's obvious that some ideas - the burning walls of guitars and the insistence of clear melody even in chaos - have been taken from the band member's other projects (including Isis, Neurosis and Halifax Pier), but everyone brings something fresh to the table, and it is this that sets Red Sparowes so high above the rest of the post-rock crowd. This is claustrophobic, driving instrumental music that will appeal as much to fans of Henryk Gorecki, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Ennio Morricone as it will fans of those parenthesis-ed parent bands. It is almost impossible to carve a niche in a genre as restrictive as post-rock, but with their Heaven-sent melodies and their plunging riffs of brimstone, Red Sparowes have drilled a planet-sized chasm.

Every Red Heart Shines Toward the Red Sunis a work of (knowlingly) epic proportions, looking boldly past any restrictions or expectations into a star-filled midnight sky. It's thrilling stuff, but in the end, if the truth be told, words really fail to describe it.