Artist: The Appleseed Cast  
Album: Peregrine      
Label: The Militia Group
Tracks: 13
Length: 55:03
Review by: Luke Kruse

We’re not in Kansas anymore.  Hailing from Lawrence, Kansas, The Appleseed Cast have created an album that sounds like it was made in another world, not a state best known for its tornadoes and wheat production.  Peregrine is the bands seventh full-length release and is a sort of rebirth for the group, as the band finds itself on a new label with a new rhythm section.  The Appleseed Cast has always created intelligent music with a foundation in the 90’s emo scene that is best known for acts like Sunny Day Real Estate and Mineral; however, the band garnered some critical acclaim and comparisons to Radiohead with the release of their experimental Low Level Owl albums in 2001, earning a rare 9.0 rating from the taste-makers at Pitchfork Media.  

Pegregrine is a return to form after the sub-par 2003 release Two Conversations. The album works as a whole to combine the best elements of the bands previous work to create arguably the finest album of their career.    The songs on Peregrine sound at turns desperate and hopeful, other times haunting and brutal.  To describe the bands sound on Pegregrine, one might throw around terms like “spacious,” and “experimental.”  The Appleseed Cast combine elements of instrumental post-rock with the driving rock elements of mid-90’s emo bands to create a sound that is their own.  Keys create melodies, guitars are distorted and driving one second and harmonious and beautiful the next, the vocals add tension to the music, and the drums absolutely devastate. The songs on Pegregrine flow together, and it is often difficult to pick out where one track ends and the next begins, which works to the albums overall benefit.  Picking out standout tracks on the album seems to defeat the albums goal, but “Woodland Hunter I” and “Woodland Hunter II” are both staggering in their darkness and beauty. 

The Appleseed Cast should be applauded for their work on Pegregrine.  Hopefully this album will do well for them and should find its place on a few Top 10 lists at the end of the year.  If Pegregrine really is the sound of Kansas, perhaps more bands should find their inspiration from wheat fields.