Watertank have been plugging away for a good few years now, and with each successive record you can’t help but think ‘could this be the one that does it for them?’ With doomed major label post-hardcore somewhat in vogue the time seems ripe for third LP ‘Silent Running’ to really hit home, especially since it’s the band’s fullest and most clearly visualised release to date. The heft and punchiness of Torche is still very much in evidence, but the 90s post-hardcore elements have been teased ever more to the fore – you can detect the soft, padded crackle of Hum, the awkward catchiness of late-period Jawbox and even the odd vocal line that could’ve been lifted from Understand’s overlooked ‘Burning Bushes And Burning Bridges’ LP. The record manages to hit a supremely sweet spot that combines sugar rush energy and deeply satisfying heaviness with the kind of plush, brink-of-waking wooziness that you can’t help but sink steadily into – perfect, somehow, for an album that shares its name with a film which sees a geodesic greenhouse hurtling into deep space at its climax.
