Somehow For Posterity seems a slightly curious title for Ten Kens‘ second album. Surely that phrase implies something carefully wrapped up for discovery by future generations, but if the children of ages hence were to find this record in a time capsule I’m not sure they could handle the contents, especially if they were played at their proper volume, which is of course loud. Hailing from Toronto, Ten Kens present here a guitar album of almost the purest kind, navigating a region overlapping both the hectic unpredictability of math rock and the cavernous bleakness of sludgier styles. Whilst it often bristles which the righteous energy you might expect from such territory and has a number of standout moments, For Posterity is ultimately held back by a growing sense of repetition as its songs pile up.

Proceedings begin promisingly, however. ‘Johnny Ventura’ opens the album with a salvo of hammering riffs – which proves to be the tip of the iceberg as far as those are concerned – but also includes a quieter midsection which is itself a signal that the album is to feature a noticeably more introspective and solemn side. ‘Insignificant Other’ documents Ten Kens closer to their math rock influences, all shifting time signatures and a vocal effort from Dan Workman which almost challenges the staggeringly high-pitched singing of Norwegian skyscraping mathematicians Lukestar, whose album Lake Toba was such a thrill two years ago. In fact, For Posterity could be seen as a sort of contrasting counterpart to that record. Oscar Wilde said we are all in the gutter, but that “some of us are looking at the stars”. Consistently spacey, Lukestar certainly were stargazing; by contrast, Ten Kens are more often headbanging in the filth.

Things start to wear thin by the time ‘Style Wars’ arrives. At seven minutes, this gaping atmospheric jam is propped up only by repetitious vocals, sparse and jagged guitar figures, and death-rattle drums. The song is positively vampiric, sucking out the Ten Kens’ carefully accumulated momentum. Yes, ‘Hard Sell’ goes a long way to recovering the initiative, but the fact that it has to – that ‘Style Wars’ has not only slowed the record’s pace, but its interest – is concerning. Nevertheless, Ten Kens do draw For Posterity to a reasonable conclusion, even if the latter tracks never match the vice-like grip of ‘Insignificant Other’ or ‘Screaming Viking’. Hopefully it’ll be third time lucky for Ten Kens, and their next album which build further on the significant promise of this one.