I'm crammed into a tight practice space in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle, at Prospect and Elliott, down by the railroad tracks. They Rise, We Die's five members crowd the room, which is getting stuffier and sweatier the longer they jam. The walls are trembling from the force of their summoned sonic maelstrom.  Even in a confined space, they sound massive - theirs is not a gentle aqueous ebb and flow, it's the sound of titanic tidal waves, roiling and crashing against craggy pacific coastlines.

"Our band name is a reference to the sea," founding member Tristan McNabb tells me, "not zombies, like everyone thinks."

McNabb, is, however (in true post-apocalyptic, zombie-outbreak fashion), something of a survivor. They Rise, We Die is McNabb's newest project, a musical rebound from the 2009 break-up of much-loved Tacoma-area instrumental act Waves and Radiation. Winners of the 2006 Weekly Volcano award for "Best Experimental Band," Waves and Radiation made epic, shoegaze-y post-rock that coalesced a number of pedal-happy influences (e.g. the Kadane Brothers' slowcore masterworks) into one heavenly mixture.

McNabb is right to describe his new outfit as "heavier" - They Rise, We Die is a monstrous band, evoking the sun-blotting scale of an alien mothership hovering over Washington state. At their loudest and most aggressive, they recall fellow Seattleite space voyagers Sleepy Eyes of Death. As I watch them practice, I'm struck not only by how virtually flawless their set sounds (they've only been playing together since January), but by how much fun it looks like they're having.

McNabb and band members Dale Bates (guitar), Stevie Gale (guitar), Edgar Garvin (bass) and Damon Erickson (drums) exhibit no practice-space timidity or lack of showmanship. Their music is relentless, and they know it. Who wouldn't thrash? These are five dudes who clearly have a deep love for instrumental rock.

"I've always been into instrumental music, I've always had a passion for that more than anything else," says Bates.

McNabb - whose gateway to post-rock geekery lay in the discovery of Tortoise, Mogwai and Talk Talk - has taken his love of the genre pretty far. He helped form Seattle's Smart People Effects Company, an outfit producing far-out guitar pedals for the gearhead crowd. One of their specialties is the "SPF Red Threat" effects pedal (billed as "the ultimate (in) high-gain distortion"), and glancing at They Rise, We Die's bountiful array of floor-crowding gear, I spot at least three Red Threats.

One might assume the pitchfork stab of They Rise, We Die's three guitars was a move copped from Texan post-rock luminaries Explosions in the Sky, but it was less a deliberate decision and more something that emerged organically as the band came together. "The three guitar thing wasn't a conscious choice, it just happened," McNabb says. And while all three axe-men sound perfectly in sync as I sit in on They Rise, We Die's practice sesh, the band is not afraid to admit that it's a set-up which has proven challenging. "(It was hard) learning that dynamic, learning not to step on each others' toes," says McNabb, who rounds out the band's three-pronged, six-string arsenal. "With instrumental music, you have to be careful about filling up the (aural) space."

"The songwriting process is definitely interesting with three guitars," says Bates. "It makes it a lot more time consuming and difficult to come up with the parts."

Bassist Edgar Garvin adds, "It's a lot of fun seeing where each of the guitar parts are going to go, and how I can bring it all together with the root note."

Despite only having one track recorded and posted to their MySpace, They Rise, We Die have a robust live set prepped - 30 minutes of operatic space rock, with faux-orchestral crescendos (McNabb's played classical music for 17 years) that give way to shimmery, looped outros. Saturday's show at the Java Jive will be They Rise, We Die's live debut, and they sound ready to melt faces. With a scant few gigs on their horizon, the band is taking things slow at first. McNabb and his wife are expecting twins (due in a few months), naturally making their autumnal schedule somewhat indeterminate.

Nevertheless, I anticipate They Rise, We Die will be in high demand. Seattle's psychedelic and instrumental scene grows hotter by the day, and fans of bands like Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Do Make Say Think will no doubt be enamored with the oceanic sounds McNabb and Co. have captured.

They Rise, We Die

with Levator, Brotherhood of the Black Squirrel
Saturday, July 31,
9 p.m., cover TBA,
Bob's Java Jive, 2102 S. Tacoma Way, Tacoma
253.475.9843