Knifeplay’s sophomore full-length, and first ever studio album Animal Drowning is a sprawling landscape of shoegaze and lofty slowcore. The album finds the band in a blend of folk instruments, walls of distortion, orchestral strings and delicate vocals, all carefully organized by Philadelphia engineer/producer Jeff Zeigler, known for his work with Nothing, Kurt Vile, and more. Though their sonic palette is vast, Knifeplay craft a cohesive aesthetic to carry frontman Tj Strohmer’s thematically heavy songwriting, which touches on loss of all kinds against the backdrop of a nihilistic world. These songs cry out with urgency no matter their ever-varied tempo and dynamic, each painting a unique vignette of tragedy. Yet the band’s dense, meticulously composed instrumentation exudes beauty, creating a lightness to balance the subject matter. With Animal Drowning, Knifeplay goes deeper into the sonic experimentation and brutally honest lyricism so beloved on their early bedroom recordings, creating an enrapturing experience that deftly builds on previous work.