Icelandic musician Ryan Karazija founded Low Roar as a solo project in 2011 after the indie rock band he fronted, Audrye Sessions, disbanded. As Low Roar, Karazija embarked on a sharp musical pivot, enlisting a meditative blend of indie folk, dream pop and folktronica sounds.
Since then, Low Roar became more of a collaborative effort, inviting a few musicians and producers to the project. The band saw a surge in popularity after heavily featuring on the soundtrack for 2019 video game “Death Stranding.” They released an album consistently every two to three years.
But on Oct. 29, 2022, Low Roar announced that Karazija passed away at age 40 from pneumonia. The heartbreaking report bore the message that Low Roar’s sixth album was already in development and would eventually be completed, as Karazija’s vocal contributions were finished before he passed.
After two years, Low Roar’s sixth and final album, “House In The Woods,” was released on Feb. 7, 2025. Longtime producers Mike Lindsay and Andrew Scheps helped bring the unfinished album together. With pianos, synths and harmonium guiding the album’s sound, it is more ambient pop-driven and less folk-inspired than some of the band’s prior work.
The album opens with “Some Day Come Back To Me,” where Karazija sings from the perspective of a hopeful parent watching their child go off into the world. The drawling harmonium and string-like synths, along with Karazija’s reverb-soaked vocals, establish the record’s dreamy atmosphere. But at the two-minute mark, everything doubles in volume and drums kick in, denoting a swelling structure Low Roar uses throughout the album. Even with the added layers of sound, the delicate mixing makes it sound just as airy as it is dense.
An ambient outro leads right into “Field Of Dreams,” the first single released for the record. The track begins with a droning harmonium note before the magic starts. Karazija narrates a story of a dubious man taking advantage of someone who longs for their dream of love to be fulfilled. The final lyrics, “Today I’ll be remembered / Tomorrow just a dream / It’s not what it seems” contribute to the track’s metaphysical focus but are also an ironic reminder of the album’s context. The following two-minute outro of building synths and pianos twinkling radiate peace, like the sound of wind chimes rustling in the spring breeze.
The third track and second single “Just How It Goes” demonstrates a sonic shift from what Low Roar showed thus far. The song shifts between segments where Karazija sings over either electronic drums and glitchy effects or the dense synths featured on the prior two tracks. The distinct sounds and conspicuous panning — something Low Roar uses frequently on the rest of the project — keeps the track engaging and makes for a transcendental moment when the two styles come together in an escalating blend before the song ends.
On “Mom,” the fifth track, Low Roar shies away from their swelling structure and leans further into their ambient side. The harmonium and synths lay out a delicate framework for Karazija’s vocals to glide upon majestically as piano arpeggios cascade around, adding to the magnificence. The song seems to be a response to the opener, with Karazija’s lyrics coming from the perspective of a child reflecting on familial cycles and addressing a concerned mother after leaving home.
“Double Trouble” and “Two Worlds Apart,” the seventh and eighth tracks on the album, are the longest by far, both around seven minutes in length. They each feature a more unique approach to the vocals by electronically modulating them down to sound eerier, reversing them, adding a guest vocalist or choir to the mix. While much of Low Roar’s work bears a stark resemblance to Radiohead’s “A Moon Shaped Pool,” the vocal decisions and space-y nature of these tracks display that similarity most of all.
The ninth track, “Gone Fishing,” continues the trend of adding a subtle layer of modulation to Karazija’s vocals to create a sense of dissonance. But instead of keeping steady, the discordance grows as Karazija sings about insignificance and apathy, with his vocals and the instrumentation reaching a breaking point as he sings: “I’m off and on and off and on / No I’m not enough / Am I strong enough.” It is one of the loudest and most emotional points on the record; the only time where the production slides from delicate to messy, and it pays off.
Low Roar ends their journey with the title track. While Karazija may not have written the album knowing he would pass, the lyrics deal with aging, death and finding something in life to cling onto. The passion in the final verses is adamant, growing alongside the stringlike synths. “Now I’m a passing thought / And I’ll try to survive / And I will write what I’ve seen / Will you read what I write? / My endless love,” Karazija sings before the album, and Low Roar, come to a close.
It’s a joy to hear Karazija’s voice again, even if it’s for the last time.
Rating: 4.5/5