Coastlands Reset: A Powerful New Chapter

Band: Coastlands

Album: Coastlands

Released: 10-10-2025

Released through Translation Loss Records

I’ve long been a fan of Coastlands. A few years back, I had the pleasure of interviewing them on The Smashing Skull Sessions, and they proved to be some of the most genuine, humble, and fiercely talented musicians you could hope to meet. Their 2020 release Death was a standout moment of that year, packed with crushing riffs, subtle yet stirring melodies, and a mesmerizing sense of momentum. Now, five years later, the band returns with their self-titled album, and I’ll be honest, it’s taken me completely by surprise!

This new self-titled album Coastlands represents the boldest stylistic shift of the band’s career. It’s an intentional shedding of their earlier post-rock framework in favor of something oddly heavier, hazier, and far more hypnotic. Now working as a streamlined three-piece, the band embraces a sound that feels both stripped down and expanded outward, trading precision-built crescendos for dense drones, saturated textures, vocals and swirling shoegaze atmospherics. It’s Coastlands, unmistakably, they have their own unique sound, but this is the band fed through a warped, dreamlike filter!

This shift towards drone and shoegaze isn’t just an aesthetic feature, it fundamentally alters the emotional weight of their music. Instead of mapping out grand, cinematic journeys, the band constructs immersive environments that reward surrender rather than anticipation. Songs evolve slowly, even though the running times are shorter! However, the effect is surprisingly intimate. With fewer players and fewer moving parts, every tone feels exposed, raw, and totally alive.

The album avoids monotony by carefully modulating intensity. Some tracks hover in meditative suspension, while others erupt into thick, crushing waves of sound that recall the darker edge of slowcore or doomgaze. It’s a dynamic that feels earned, not engineered, and a natural growth of the trio’s newfound focus. Don’t panic though, as they haven’t completely stripped away their old skin. Tracks like Hollowing and Tide retain that weight and snarl which adorned Death, but it’s fair to say their path has changed.

In the end, Coastlands stands as the band’s most transformative statement to date. If I’m completely honest, it took me the last four weeks to finally feel this album and understand where the band were going with it. Once it clicks with you, then you’ll see that it’s a deeply textural, and beautifully gazed reimagining of their identity, proving that reinvention can be both risky, but ultimately for the band, personally rewarding.

https://coastlands.bandcamp.com/album/coastlands