Men As Trees Weltschmerz and Sea of Ice Songs

Released
7th July 2023
Label 
I Corrupt
Format

12 Inch Double

A/B Green and C/D Marbled Orange

£28.00

A thoroughly welcome, and beautifully packaged, reissue of the 2008 Men As Trees LP, Weltschmerz, released on vinyl for the first time, augmented with two songs from split releases in 2009 and 2010, Sea of Ice Songs.

Men As Trees were a DIY screamo band from Michigan, who were active from 2003 to 2009, before regrouping after a two-year hiatus as Locktender.  Weltschmerz explores the German concept – a sense of grief at how the world falls short of our hopes and expectations – through the life of naturalist and conservationist Dick Proeneke, who lived in solitude for almost thirty-years in Alaska.  Sea of Ice Songs explores parallel themes of mankind’s relationship with nature through Caspar Friedrich’s haunting arctic painting ‘The Sea of Ice’.  Musically, the band were pioneers in the art of blending extended passages of evocative ambient post-rock with cathartic crescendos of infectious hardcore intensity, fuelled by passionately varied vocals.  The band fashioned these elements together with impressive coherency and emotional sincerity.

—Foundation Vinyl