Cinematic | Metal | Post-metal
100%
Mountainscape—Traversing Realms (2026)
Details
Drums recorded by Joe Clayton at No Studio; all other aspects of the album’s sound handled by Dan Scrivener and Ethan Bishop. Artwork by True Spilt Milk Designs. Released on Friday 24 July 2026 on the Road to Masochist record label.
For fans of: Russian Circles, Inter Arma, Telepathy, If These Trees Could Talk
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Band
- Dan Scrivener—Guitar
- Ethan Bishop—Bass
- James Scrivener—Drums
Additional musicians
- Amaya López-Carromero—Guest vocals on “Dune”
- Sally Hobbs and Thea Hobbs—Violin and viola on “Closure”
- Uta Mulenga—Cello on “Closure”
- Tom Marsh—Double bass on “Closure”
Tracks
- Dune (featuring Amaya López-Carromero) (9:52)
- The Elder Scrolls (8:00)
- Closure (10:34)
Review
Mountainscape is a cinematic post-metal band from Reading, England, formed in 2019 by guitarist Dan Scrivener, drummer James Scrivener and bassist Ethan Bishop. Dan and James previously played in Traces, Aklash and Saturnian, while Ethan is also a member of Cairiss.
Traversing Realms (2026) is the band’s fourth album, following Acceptance (2021), Atoms Unfurling (2022) and the critically acclaimed Iridescent (2024). Its three expansive pieces draw upon imaginary worlds, treasured musical memories and the very real experience of grief. The result is an album that feels vast and cinematic, but also deeply personal.
“Dune” (track 1) opens with the dramatic, lamenting voice of Amaya López-Carromero rising above thrashing guitars and rumbling drums. Her vocals sound almost like a cry carried across an alien landscape. They immediately establish the scale and emotional intensity of the piece.
After around 90 seconds, the storm subsides. A wandering guitar arpeggio, gently tapped cymbals and a restless bass line create a serene, atmospheric clearing. It is a beautiful contrast, but the respite does not last. The enormous riff returns, accompanied once again by those haunting vocals.
Mountainscape repeats this ebb and flow throughout the track. At around five and a half minutes, another reverb-soaked passage opens up, filled with carefully picked guitar notes and an almost weightless sense of space. Then the wall of sound crashes back in. Beneath all that noise, however, the melody remains clear and beautiful.
By the end, the track seems to burn itself out, like a spaceship hurtling helplessly into the sun.
“The Elder Scrolls” (track 2) begins with a clean, gurgling guitar pattern repeating beneath an ethereal keyboard melody. It immediately reminds me of the fabulous Russian Circles. At eight minutes, it is the shortest piece on Traversing Realms (2026), but it still contains an entire journey.
Where the opening track confronts us with muscle and raw power, this song initially takes a more reflective path. Its floating melody draws the listener into a vast, mist-covered landscape. Around three minutes in, distortion tears through the stillness and plunges us into a crashing, tumbling maelstrom. The original melody remains audible, however, like a thread guiding us safely through the chaos.
The pace changes again at around four and a half minutes. The music slows, stops and then kicks back into life like a vast power generator. This is irresistible, head-nodding metal: the diesel engine of a locomotive thrashing its way through a dark and misty wilderness.
Then the mist suddenly lifts. The sunshine breaks through, the sky turns blue and that gentle, ethereal melody returns.
The final and longest piece, “Closure” (track 3), moves away from imagined worlds and towards something painfully real. Written in response to personal loss, it begins with a playful, racing, palm-muted arpeggio cutting through an atmospheric keyboard landscape. There are moments here that remind me of Jean-Michel Jarre, although Mountainscape gradually transform that electronic spaciousness into something heavier and more emotionally overwhelming.
The track builds and grows until it becomes the kind of music that you cannot merely hear. It touches you and sinks into your heart. This is the soundtrack to heartbreak. It is the theme tune to a life ending, when the screen fades and the credits begin to roll.
Then, quite unexpectedly, the piece takes an almost triumphant turn. The melody soars and sunlight breaks through the clouds. There is hope here – and we are still only halfway through this extraordinary track. The guitars become heavier, spitting out a hypnotic riff as the composition moves through another of its many progressive transformations. Strings add further depth without becoming sentimental or overwhelming the band’s core sound.
Oh dear God, this track is heartbreakingly glorious. It is beautiful. Just sit alone, close your eyes and listen.
The two-minute coda brings everything gently back to earth. It feels like watching the dust from the most spectacular fireworks display slowly drift through the night. The light, noise and excitement have suddenly gone. A life has been extinguished, leaving only silence beneath the mournful moonlight.
Then it is over, almost before you realise it. Does grief ever truly offer the closure its absence appears to promise?
Conclusion
I always know when I have a fabulous album on my hands because I find myself avoiding sitting down to write the review. I want to hold on to it for just a few days longer.
That has certainly been the case with Traversing Realms (2026). Mountainscape has created three distinct musical worlds, but they are connected by the same remarkable control of atmosphere, dynamics and melody. The production allows the quietest details to breathe while giving the heaviest passages tremendous physical weight.
“Dune” (track 1) is vast and otherworldly. “The Elder Scrolls” (track 2) is an exhilarating journey through memory and imagination. But it is “Closure” (track 3) that has lodged itself most deeply in my heart. It is progressive, cinematic and almost unbearably moving.
Traversing Realms (2026) is not simply an album to hear. It is somewhere to travel through, to become lost within and, perhaps, to emerge from changed.
Review score: 100%
Video
Disclosure
Imperative PR contacted me inviting me to preview Mountainscape’s forthcoming album, thank you. I have no connections to either Imperative PR or Mountainscape. I’m not being paid to review this, but I did get a free digital copy of the album to review which is pretty cool. Many thanks to Imperative PR, and to Mountainscape for continuing to create fresh, exciting cinematic post-metal.