Say what you will about From Monument to Masses.  Whether one treated the band with indifference or praised it as a gift from the gods, one would have to admit that the band was influential.  Case in point:  Ireland's Enemies, a mathy quartet that clearly picks up where FMTM left off.

In terms of basic structure, there's not much variety to be found in the group's debut, We've Been Talking.  All nine tracks are mid-tempo jaunts of riffing and cathartic chordal resolutions.  But don't mistake this for saying that there's no variety; from "Backaches & Cardigans" to "Morse Code", each song breathes with distinctive life, telling a new and different story from start to finish.  Yet in true post-rock fashion, these stories are up to the listener to decipher, as the track titles offer little sense of subject or inspiration.

There can be no mistaking the maturity of this band, despite its youth.  The layering of parts - two guitars, bass, drums, all distinct - is impressive.  "Gingerly" starts with a long, slow fade-in before becoming one of the grittier tracks on the record, with a fierce bass lead and haunting guitar harmonies.  This makes one feel as if one is alone at dawn on a grey morning, with fog swirling around.  Conversely, "Fierce Pit Bosses" braids a Celtic knot of fragmented guitar parts that hints ever so subtly at the heydey of Don Caballero, with a rolling bass part atop near perfect drumming.  Enemies manages to establish a solid connection with its listeners, who are happily pulled into its world.

This sense of connection is ultimately what makes We've Been Talking such a successful enterprise; on this front, it is all hits, no misses.  The musicianship is top notch and the composition and arrangement are ingenious, but had the album come off as clinical or heartless, it wouldn't have generated the excitement that it so clearly engenders.  If Enemies keeps this up, there is little doubt that it will become a fixture in the post-rock scene.  Frankly, such consistency could even make it the Irish instrumental band, more so than God Is An Astronaut. We'll have to wait and see about that, but We've Been Talking is certainly a strong step in the right direction.

-Lee Stablein