Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined

With their latest effort, Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky..., Japan's Mono have evolved into one of the most passionately aggressive rock bands of the last decade, executing their soaring crescendos, titanic sheets of distortion, and dark melodies with the delicacy and precision of a folded paper crane. Mono worked with Steve Albini on Walking Cloud..., and together they managed to capture the band's hopeful immediacy without sacrificing visceral impact. More lush and orchestral than previous efforts, the album couples overall slow-melting ambience with thunderous drive that brings the band to the greatest heights they have yet reached.