On A Shift In Moods/The Inferno of the Living we encounter an increasingly common musical endeavor in the post-rock and ambient world - solo acts billing themselves as centerfolds with a pseudonym, usually electronically-backed to make up for the lack of manpower behind the sound. In this case two individuals are responsible for the two separate artist names contributing to the Years/Ventoux split. Unlike some of these one-to-two man electronic outfits becoming prevalent recently, both sounds come from unexpected side projects. Years is Ryan Parrish from the Virginia metal group Darkest Hour and Ventoux is the name chosen by Graham Scala of Souvenir’s Young America notoriety. What’s notable about this is the stark contrast of the mood on this split compared to the bands from which both artists originate.

Rather than the post-metal or scream-punk minimalism you would expect from the pairing of these two, A Shift In Moods... presents two different flavors of fairly straightforward ambient. Especially pleasing is the dimly lit and slightly horror-tipped ambience created by Graham Scala. I must admit a bit of bias, as Souvenir’s Young America has graced my car stereo more than a few times, but what Scala has created here is an entirely different beast. The four tracks he donates are a fairly impressive noise bath of eerie sounds reverberating past each other. All are impressively named and equally epic-reaching, and last track “While The Living Still Outnumber the Dead” seems to impart the exact feeling you get while reading a Cormac McCarthy novel or watching an old zombie film.

The smaller contribution in both duration and fortitude is Parrish’s three tracks under the Years moniker. The songs do admittedly provide the "ying" to Ventoux’s "yang," but in the same way that many famous people have a pitiable younger sibling of just slight physical resemblance. The tracks that begin the album are nearly enough to dissuade even a dedicated listener from reaching the slightly rewarding finish. Rather than create a convincingly ominous mood, these openers do more to just barely create a sense of curiosity before dragging on aimlessly for minutes at a time. Had the two better propped each other up, the entire effort might have been more of an obvious success, although saying which is the stronger half may just vary with the ambient listener.

-Brendan Kraft