by Colin JoyceThe way St. Pete musician Shane Handal tells it, set and setting’s roots are in the bedroom. At the project’s infancy, the then 19-year-old set about composing heavy riffing instrumental passages with nothing but his computer to keep him company. These hermetic origins and a band name that references psychedelic jargon coined by Timothy Leary might conjure expectations of fragile, poignant, singer-songwriter tunes, but Handal’s work to date has proven far more grandiose.
Like its boundary-pushing U.S. metal contemporaries (including tourmates Inter Arma), set and setting proves omnivorous on their latest release, Equanimity, steeping it equally in sludgy stoner rock, the tremolo picked guitar lines of classic Black Metal, and the patient, distant squalls of more traditional strains of post-rock. With several tracks that breach the seven-minute mark, including two (“The Fear of Obtainment” and “Essence of Paradox”) that reach 13 minutes, Equanimity could’ve easily been an exercise in extreme patience. But the diverse palette that Handal and Co. draw from gives the sprawl a sense of purpose. After all, Handal remembers his bedroom roots, both the attention to detail and the boundless experimentation associated with it. The expansion of his band to a two-drummer assault of post-everything genre-deconstructivism doesn’t mean that he’s forgotten where he started. He’s just finally allowed form to meet function. (Critics Ratings’: 4 out of 5 stars)
set and setting play a CD Release show with Inter Arma, Order of the Owl, Recreant, and Bog Prophet this Fri., June 7, in Octave, St. Petersburg; doors at 8 p.m., admission $5.