Albums of the Week: 15/02/19 (SWMRS, ENDON, Millencolin)

SWMRS – Berkeley’s On Fire

6.5/10

Best Tracks: Berkeley’s On Fire, April In Houston, Hellboy

FFO: Weezer, Talking Heads, The Regrettes

SWMRS’ debut, Drive North, was an album I loved when it came out, mixing a slacker-punk vibe with indie sensibilities and massive choruses. It was scrappy, and at times sickly-sweet, but undeniably held a youthful charm.

Berkeley’s On Fire is the sound of the band attempting to experiment with their sound in a variety of ways, with arguably mixed results. It goes to so many different places that I struggled to keep the “FFO” section in check; from new wave, to 90s emo, to modern British indie, the album is eclectic to say the least. That’s not to say it’s not consistent – in fact, it’s far from a disjointed listen. The vocal delivery (from brothers Cole and Max Becker) in particular ties the whole thing together, entrenching Berkeley’s On Fire in a similar summery feeling to that of Drive North. The quality, however, varies from song to song more wildly than the style does.

The jaunty guitars and stomping drums of the title track make it the standout by quite a distance. In a way, it’s angular; an odd little song with interesting chords and an outright weird bridge, but on the whole it manages to be utterly enjoyable. Another favourite of mine is April In Houston, a sun-drenched ballad which keeps the energy up with some absolutely insane drum and synth samples in the background – it gets weirder the more closely you listen. There are, however, some experiments which don’t work out too well on this record; IKEA Date comes across like a misguided Turnover rip-off, with vocals dipping into overly saccharine territory, and Lose Lose Lose is an ultimately unsatisfying punk tune accompanied by a chicken-squawk refrain. The closer, Steve Got Robbed, lays claim to a clunky chorus and some weird Sleaford Mods-esque verses which makes the track feel like it belongs on a different album entirely.

Berkeley’s On Fire isn’t a record for everyone. I’ve no idea if it’s even a record for me, but it’s fascinating nonetheless, and showcases some flashes of brilliance.

ENDON – Boy Meets Girl

9/10

Best Tracks: Born Again, Doubts As a Source, Not For You

FFO: Merzbow, Full of Hell, Daughters, The Armed

Let’s get the obvious out the way here - this album is a rough listen. I’m hard pressed to remember if I've ever heard a body of work which has elicited such a visceral reaction from me, in that every rational thought I had when I first hit play was telling me to simply pause the thing and never listen to it again. And that’s incredible.

ENDON are a Japanese group who take elements of grindcore, noise, avant garde, and black metal, and appear to play the whole amalgam from the perspective of a computer virus. On Boy Meets Girl, the band take the listener (as cliché as it sounds) on an unbelievable journey. The first three tracks drop you straight in at the deep end with the most uncomfortable listening experience you could possibly imagine; insane, manic screaming vocals which accompany staggeringly heavy instrumentation, seemingly squeezed through 60 different bitcrushers. From there, you’re plunged even further down the rabbit hole with the 11-minute cornerstone of the record, Doubts As a Source, which is simply the soundtrack to a man’s mental breakdown.

Then, after Doubts As a Source mercifully ends, the record enters an entirely new dimension in which the hellish world built by the first act starts to make sense, and the listener is forced to become an inhabitant. Love Amnesia and Final Acting Out will have you inexplicably nodding your head to the madness, as more traditional punk elements are subtly and seamlessly integrated. The album finishes with Red Shoes and Not For You, a combination which feels like a dream sequence in a Takashi Miike film. The final track is an unbelievable stroke of genius; a raging noise-rock song which wouldn’t look out of place if dropped by The Armed, or even Converge at their wildest. It might be my song of the year thus far, and Boy Meets Girl is undoubtedly my album of the week. Holy shit.

Millencolin – SOS

6/10

Best Tracks: SOS, Nothing, Reach You

FFO: Bad Religion, Pennywise, Rise Against

Over the course of their 26-year-long career, Millencolin have become a name unavoidably synonymous with skate-punk. For the majority of that time, the Swedes have stuck to their original sound – similar to other legends of 90s punk rock like Pennywise and NOFX, but with a little more pop-punk influence from bands like Green Day. On their 2015 album, True Brew (the one that made me a fan), Millencolin seemed to refine themselves a little, leaning further into pop-punk and radio-rock whilst still maintaining their identity as a skate-punk band. The choruses were bigger, the hooks catchier, and the songwriting still brilliantly simple.

On SOS, the group continue down this same path in terms of sonics. The instrumentation and production is a lot tighter than their earlier work, and the choruses of tracks like Nothing and Reach You are instant earworms. The pop-punk side of Millencolin is more clearly abundant, too - all of these songs are purpose-built to be played outside at a summer festival, with beach balls and crowdsurfers abound. For an album which clocks in at 33 minutes, though, it’s easy to feel that you will have heard everything it has to offer by track nine or ten.

The biggest issue I have with SOS is that thematically it tries to be a very political album and at the same time manages to say absolutely nothing at all. The commentary doesn’t appear to go past observation - the message I got from Let It Be, for example, is that you should just ignore any news which bums you out. If that is indeed the intended meaning, then what’s the point of trying to make a politically charged record? At times it comes across as very “How do you do, fellow kids?”, with Yanny & Laurel as the most egregious offender.

However, if you’re into your skate-punk, you can’t go wrong (as always) with this Millencolin album for a good half-hour of fun.

Albums of the Week: 08/02/19 (Ithaca, Queen Zee, Maestus)

As stated on my Facebook last week, these past two Fridays have been pretty dry for releases, so I’m putting them in the same post together. Still only three albums, but what can you do?

Ithaca – The Language of Injury

9/10

Best Tracks: New Covenant, Impulse Crush, Gilt

FFO: Rolo Tomassi, Palm Reader, Employed To Serve

Here’s a band that know how to push my buttons. Any breakdown which utilises discords like The Dillinger Escape Plan will make me go weak at the knees. If that kind of stuff is for you, this album is for you as well.

Whilst it has it’s roots in hardcore, what’s most impressive about Ithaca’s debut record is the flawlessness of the integration of so many different influences. Take the opening track, New Covenant, for example; it’s a song which begins with pounding drums and distant screamed vocals buried under an ocean of guitar feedback, before transitioning into a verse which flirts simultaneously with Mastodon, Oathbreaker, and Rolo Tomassi in the space of 30 seconds. It then kicks into an Employed To Serve-style riff peppered with fiery guitar licks, and the song ends with then an even nastier breakdown which could’ve come straight off a Code Orange record. And that’s just one song. Similarly to Vein’s Errorzone last year, this amalgam of influence never feels gratuitous in that The Language of Injury is a Frankenstein’s monster of an album; a plethora of brilliant styles intricately sown together to create a wholly original beast.  

The real stunner on the record comes in the form of the penultimate track - Gilt. Songs like Impulse Crush and Slow Negative Order are fantastic as blasts of technically-minded hardcore brilliance, but Gilt makes them seem like simply the starting point for Ithaca. It’s where the Rolo Tomassi influence can be heard most obviously, with an eerily beautiful clean-vocal passage sandwiched between hulking, spiteful, screaming verses. The track makes it apparent that the band’s potential isn’t quite fulfilled yet, and that’s a very exciting prospect.

Holy Roar Records, to put it bluntly, have been on a mad one as of late. They’ve established themselves as the bastions of heavy music in the UK, showcasing the youngest and brightest talent this nation has to offer on an almost weekly basis. It’s absolutely no surprise at all that their latest release is as good as this. In the grand scheme of things, this album has pushed Ithaca up a level, and they are a wonderful addition to the ever-growing British metal scene. The Language of Injury is not only a damn strong debut, but also my album of the week(s).

Queen Zee – Queen Zee

6/10

Best Tracks: Lucy Fur, Victim Age, I Hate Your New Boyfriend

FFO: Cabbage, Petrol Girls, FIDLAR

I first encountered Queen Zee (or Queen Zee and The Sasstones, as they were called then) when they supported Marmozets on their UK tour in 2017. I was impressed by their live performance, loving their brand of snotty, rough-around-the-edges punk with lyrics concerning a total disregard for gender norms and disdain for ex-partners. However, I’ve since felt that they’ve been unable to transplant the same energy onto their recorded content.

Whilst I still feel the same is true of their self-titled debut, there’s no denying that the passion put into this album comes across fantastically. From the sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek lyrics and vocal delivery to the treble-heavy guitar tones marrying some beefy basslines, Queen Zee showcases a great grasp of the band’s genre - Lucy Fur and I Hate Your New Boyfriend standing out in particular as good old-fashioned scrappy, shout-along punk anthems. Where the record falls flat, unfortunately, is on the clunky songwriting of tracks like Porno and Hunger Pains. Something about a few of these songs feels incomplete, in a way; a theme which almost ends up enveloping the album as a whole. Still, it likely won’t mar the experience for you if you’re looking for a collection of solidly raucous punk-rock tunes (and also if you’ve got some strong feelings about gender roles).

Maestus – Deliquesce

8/10

Best Tracks: Deliquesce, Knell of Solemnity

FFO: Bell Witch, Pallbearer, Paradise Lost

This album was only recently recommended to me, and I was slightly skeptical when the first track lead in with a grand piano. However, as soon as Deliquesce kicks in, it traps you under it’s spell and refuses to set you free until the end of the final song.

This second album from Oregon’s Maestus is a blackened doom epic which almost manages to transcend the limitations of its form through sheer cinematic scope. The utilisation of strings, keys, and synths across the canvas of this album is brilliant, weaving in and out of the villainously heavy guitars and percussion flawlessly. The vocals are reminiscent of what I imagine Conjurer and Behemoth would sound like wading through a swamp carrying anvils on their backs. It’s a seriously weighty record, evoking bleak imagery not unlike the album artwork itself; this is the album that Charon probably listens to as he rows damned souls across the river Styx.

To somebody unfamiliar with doom metal, a four-track album lasting 50 minutes may look a little daunting, but I’d urge you to give this Maestus LP a fair chance – it’ll hold your attention more readily than you might think.

Live Review: Parkway Drive/Killswitch Engage/Thy Art Is Murder at the Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff

Photo by Kane Hibberd

It’s no secret at this point that Parkway Drive are one of modern metal’s finest live acts. They’ve honed their craft over the last few years in particular to create a spectacular show that promises something bigger, better, and hotter every time. Fresh off the release of their sixth album (the built-for-arenas Reverence) last year, the band have just finished up the UK leg of their tour of Europe with Thy Art Is Murder and Killswitch Engage, and their show in Cardiff on Friday was something truly special.

Opening the show at a 5,000 cap venue when you’re heavier than a black hole full of cement might sound a substantial challenge to most bands. Thy Art Is Murder (8.5/10) are not “most bands”. It’s clear that the deathcore legends share a good portion of their fanbase with their Aussie brothers in PWD, as a good half of the Motorpoint Arena is filled by 7:15. Thy Art waste absolutely no time in whipping up chaos in the most brutal way possible; bookending the set with ragers from their most recent release, 2017’s Dear Desolation, and slotting live set staples The Purest Strain of Hate, Holy War, and Reign of Darkness in between. The way CJ McMahon orchestrates the crowd simply serves as a reminder as to why he has become one of this generation’s most iconic heavy vocalists. He’s the ringmaster of a circus consisting entirely of blast beats and disgusting breakdowns, and the spectacle leaves the Cardiff crowd breathless and utterly adrenalised.  

This is the part of the review in which I have all my metalcore street cred stripped away by admitting that I’ve never really been into Killswitch Engage (8/10). I know I should go through their discography and get educated, and their performance at this show does a grand job of convincing me to do exactly that. A good three quarters of the crowd knows every word to every song, which makes it feel all the more special when they smash through modern classics like My Curse and The End of Heartache in the midst of some of their newer stuff (which is also fantastic live). Jesse Leach’s stage presence is utterly undeniable, and guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz’s hilariously immature antics balance Leach’s more down-to-earth persona out perfectly. You can see why this band has so much longevity.

If you haven’t seen Parkway Drive (9.5/10) live before, I’d encourage you to try and find a way to do so as soon as possible. I’m hard-pressed to think of a band on as hot a streak as they are right now; blazing a trail for current-day metal bands to get to that Download-headliner level in the not-so-distant future.

In Cardiff, Parkway begin their set being lead to the stage through the crowd by hooded men carrying flaming torches. It’s soundtracked by an eerie medley of snippets from Reverence, a choice which sends anticipation like a static shock through the increasingly fervent fans down the front. With the spotlight on frontman Winston McCall, Wishing Wells makes for an incredible opener - when that initial “until I’m done” breakdown hits, anarchy is let loose upon the Motorpoint, and it doesn’t really let up for the next hour and a half. The musicianship from each member of the band is practically flawless all the way through, as they cycle through banger after banger with effortless showmanship. The highlights are all undoubtedly taken from the band’s latest albums, Ire and Reverence, upon which they took a hard-rock oriented left turn and subsequently boosted their palatability with a more mainstream crowd. Tracks like Prey, Crushed, Absolute Power, and set closer Bottom Feeder all stand out as Parkway Drive’s absolute finest, in comparison to Karma and Wild Eyes, which surprisingly come across as slightly weaker and less exciting (despite their increased heaviness). Slower songs such as Cemetery Bloom and The Colour of Leaving also make a lot more sense in a live environment, not only giving the crowd some much-needed respite, but also lending a sense of freshness and versatility to the performance whilst maintaining an unstoppable level of power.

It’d be remiss to not talk about how much the stage production adds to the whole experience at a PWD show. There are raising platforms that carry the guitarists upwards during a solo (or the wonderful string ensemble during Shadow Boxing); there’s constant flamethrowing pyro, even from the sound desk; at one point Winston lights a Molotov cocktail and launches it toward the backdrop, setting the stage completely alight. It’s as much a firework display as it is a metal concert, and it’s staggering to watch. Everything is extremely well thought-out, and it showcases a band almost transcendent of their years (and popularity). I’ve seen many, many Reading Festival headline sets which weren’t even half as impressive as what Parkway Drive are doing on their current tour.  

You can catch Parkway Drive (and I suggest you do) on the remainder of their European tour at the following dates in February:

• 6^th - Amsterdam AFAS Live
• 8^th - Koln Palladium
• 11^th - Stuttgart Schleyerhalle
• 12^th - Zurich Halle 672
• 13^th - Milan Alcatraz
• 15^th - Munich Zenith
• 17^th - Vienna Gasometer
• 18^th - Prague Forum Karlin

And can catch them this summer in the UK headlining Bloodstock Festival, with tickets available here.