September | 2022 | Aural Aggravation

Archive for September, 2022

Leatherette – Sunbathing

Posted: 13 September 2022 in Singles and EPs
Tags: Bronson Recordings, exciting, exhilarating, Hybrid, Indie, Leatherette, Post-Punk, rish, Shoegaze, short, Single Review, Sunbathing

Bronson Recordings

Christopher Nosnibor

Life’s short. Too short. It may not always seem it, when you’re slugging through long days in grinding employment that earns a wage that buys less by the year – or, right now, by the week – or when you’re sitting in waiting rooms in doctors or dentists or hospitals, or waiting for trains or busses, ever fewer and ever later. Life as lived, in real-time, is often a drag. But then you realise a year, three, five, ten, has evaporated while you’ve been willing each day to pass just so you can move on from it and move on to the evening, the weekend, a better future that never comes.

But even when time drags, we’re busy and don’t have time to waste on shit we don’t want to do, beyond the work, the groceries, the bill-paying, the essentials. What little leisure time we have that we’re awake enough to enjoy is too little to squander on crap that isn’t the crap we want to spent it on, meaning life’s too short for crap bands and crap music.

On opening the email urging me to listen to the latest from Leatherette, the single ‘Sunbathing’, lifted from their upcoming debut album Fiesta, out on 14th October, my heart sank as my slow, scrolling broadband, revealed a promo short of the Bologne-based quintet a segment at a time.

Turns out they’re infinitely better to listen to than they look, and ‘Sunbathing’ very much fits with everything I’ve just said about life being too short. It’s pitched as a ‘song about hope, dreaming of a better life and telling the world to go f**k itself when needed. It sounds loud, fast and rough, an irresistible punk-shoegaze anthem’, and the band explains that “‘Sunbathing’ was almost born as a joke, it came out of nowhere. We wanted to write a happy cheesy pop song and then completely destroy it from within”.

And they succeed: in the space of just over a minute and a half, they throw down a sackload of post-punk angularity delivered with a rawness that brings real bite. Drawing on a broad range of stylistic elements all tangled together, it’s simultaneously familiar-feeling and fresh, not to mention exhilarating, with squalling guitars howling through a rack of effects lurking behind a pleasant jangle and played at a frantic pace, propelled by some whirlwind drumming. It’s a rush, a clash of sensations, disaffected and yet uplifting. Short lives demand short songs, and with ‘Sunbathing’, Leatherette are spot on.

Tracksuit – Ghost of Rome

Posted: 12 September 2022 in Singles and EPs
Tags: alternative, cowbell, Ghost of Rome, Guitar, Independent, Progressive, Psychedelic, Rock, Tracksuit

James Wells

Fucking hell, we really are running out of names, aren’t we? To the point where even otherwise memorable bands are forgettable because of their ultra-generic name. And some acts sink without a trace because they’re simply impossible to even find through an Internet search. Actor is an obvious example for me, but then we’ve recently had Loungewear grace these virtual pages, and now bloody Tracksuit. How would The The or The Police have faired in the Internet age, I wonder? I mean, stepping aside from the fact their music is tedious and people would probably skip their songs faster than ever now. But it seems like bands aren’t even trying now: Sports Team? Two very different acts operating as Working Men’s Club? Are they trying to bury themselves before their careers have even begun, or do they simply have no imagination and no concept of how The Internet works? Or have we simply reached the apogee of postmodernism, the point at which truly everything has been done, there is no ‘new’, only regurgitations and rehashing, and culture has reached its inevitable dead-end?

It’s a shame Tracksuit have doubly done themselves a disservice with a moniker that’s not only super-generic but also a bit shite, especially as it really doesn’t reflect what they’re about at all. It’s a shame because ‘Ghost of Rome’ is decent. It’s not some lame rappy shite or laid-back bedroomy r ‘n’ b: it’s fundamentally a stripped-back psychedelic rock tune with a keen sense off dynamic and a palpable energy, meaning there’s a lot to like as they dig in with a lively and buoyant bass groove that’s got action and detail. It’s got a heavy 70s vibe about it and it kicks ass – but probably doesn’t need anymore cowbell, because everything is just right.

Click the image to listen:

Watch: ‘Violate Consensus Reality’ by Psychonaut

Posted: 12 September 2022 in Recommended Streams and Videos
Tags: Amenra, Colin H. Van Eeckhout, Pelagic Records, Prog, Progressive, Psychonaut, video stream, Violate Consensus Reality

The immense success of Psychonaut’s Pelagic debut album Unfold The God Man, which has been repressed 3 times throughout the pandemic and sold close to 3.000 vinyl copies to date, has proven that Psychonaut are a force to be reckoned with.

The three gentlemen from Mechelen, Belgium now return with a ferocious and muchly anticipated concept album that proclaims the formation of a new world through the acceptance of a new human identity. “We’ve always been interested in religion, spirituality and philosophy,” explains vocalist/guitarist Stefan de Graef about the music of PSYCHONAUT. “We’ve meditated together, had long discussions about the nature of life, and we share a common vision.”

Now, with the release of their sophomore album Violate Consensus Reality on 28th October (Pelagic Records), the Belgian three-piece take you on a visceral trip into our collective human consciousness. A journey marked by explosive riffs, soaring vocals and intricate yet catchy compositions.

An impressive album which cements PSYCHONAUT’s standing as aspirants to the throne of the contemporary European progressive / post metal community.

“We distance ourselves from a system that is based on the idea that humanity is fundamentally bad and needs protection from itself in the form of a hierarchy,” continues De Graef about PSYCHONAUT’s latest album. “By no longer subscribing to the notion that we are all separate beings in a separate world that is dead and pointless, we embrace the vision of a new civilisation that is rooted in the idea that we are part of a living, sacred universe.” Likening our present state of separation to “an island on oceans grown, designed to bear unpredictable wrath,” the band accompanies their denunciation by punishing riffs and heavily syncopated rhythms, grabbing you by your guts and taking you on a turbulent journey.

Violate Consensus Reality engages the senses in a way that is quite rare for concept albums, it is raw and brutal, unlike the lofty concept albums of yore with their endlessly repeating motifs and needlessly complex song structures. It stands in a long tradition of activism in music, but it also deconstructs this tradition by taking its loud and admonishing tone and providing it with a thoughtful base rooted in philosophy and spirituality.

With music deeply rooted in communal meditation sessions, psychedelic metal outfit Psychonaut are a unique entity in the Belgian metal scene and beyond. The mantric title track of their upcoming second album, which they have now shared, sees the trio once more aligned in body and mind as they appeal to the listener with a 9-minute atmospheric slow burner. Their stature is once more affirmed by Amenra’s Colin H. van Eeckhout, who ushers the track to an unforgettable climax.

Watch the video now:

GLDN – Suicide Machine

Posted: 11 September 2022 in Singles and EPs
Tags: dark, electronic, GLDN, Harsh, Industrial, Marilyn Manson, Metal, PLacebo, Suicide Machine

9th September 2022

Christopher Nosnibor

Brooklyn-based blood and gore and dark-fixated industrial metal act GLDN keep on mixing things up with their singular and innovative take on industrial / metal / electronica, and the first single released ahead of the upcoming album Hemophilia, released early October, is another genre-smashing blast of excitement.

At the start of the video, front man Nicholas Golden is wearing a minidress on a mock-up of a slightly fuzzy-looking VHS clip, and while in itself it’s not edgy, it’s both resourceful (can’t afford actors for your promo? Do it yourself) and parodic in setting a dystopian tone n a retro setting. The trouble with retro dystopias is that, as we’ve come to find the hard way, is that the projected future which is now the present is actually worse. 1984 no longer reads like fiction, but reportage. What do you actually do with that knowledge? How do you live with that grim realisation? You too could be the owner of an obelisk…

The lyrics pick at social media and Instagram perfection, and on reading the lyrics, I remember with a slow sinking feeling how I read on a daily basis in the tabloid media how professionals – nurses, teachers, name it – are taking to OnlyFans to make ends meet and in no time they’re quitting their stressful, shittily-paid dayjobs in favour of coining it in to pay off their mortgages:

Got no flaws, no imperfections

The unachievable is my new obsession

Can’t get enough, I’m never satisfied

I’ve got to whore myself out just to feel alive

‘I’d rather be dead than be irrelevant’, Golden concludes, and it’s a stark yet fair reflection: people crave the attention as much as the money, and the bottom line is that the system is fucked and society and culture is fucked.

Coming on like an electro-infused black metal cross between Placebo and Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails, ‘Suicide Machine’ finds GLDN in darkly abrasive form, peaking with a blistering climactic finale that’s utterly punishing. Bring the album.

Mikael Åkerfeldt – Clark: A Dramatic Score by Mikael Åkerfeldt from the Netflix Series

Posted: 11 September 2022 in Albums
Tags: 70s, Album Review, bank robber, Clark Olofsson, Clark: A Dramatic Score, comedy, Drama, Funk, Groove, heist, Jan-Erik Olsson, Mikael Åkerfeldt, Netflix, Opeth, Progressive, Soundtrack, Stockholm Syndrome

Christopher Nosnibor

Sometime during lockdown – which one, I can’t remember exactly, but likely the first, where here in England what initially looked like being a couple of weeks, ended up being more like a lifetime. After the lockdown announced on 23 March 2020 was extended on 16 April for ‘at least three weeks’ and in fact running into June, the fear surrounding the lifting of restrictions saw references to Stockholm Syndrome circulating with increasing frequency in the media.

Described as ‘a psychological response’ which occurs when hostages or abuse victims bond with their captors or abusers, and the victim may come to sympathize with their captors, and

may even begin to feel as if they share common goals and causes.

The name originates from a failed bank robbery staged in Stockholm in 1973, where Jan-Erik Olsson, and his charismatic accomplice Clark Olofsson held four employees as hostages, remaining captive for six days in one of the bank’s vaults, and when the hostages were released, none of them would testify against either captor in court; instead, they began raising money for their defence.

While the syndrome is disputed, the concept is something of a source of fascination. Personally, I had never been one of those who found themselves ‘loving lockdown life’, but found myself apprehensive about the easing of lockdown: what would be the ‘right’ way to behave in public, how would things ‘work’? I didn’t need to worry about pub and gig etiquette for a while, but was more fearful of other people than I was of Covid – because people are unpredictable, and after being cooped up for so long, who knows how many might have lost it?

Swedish Netflix mini-series Clark is the story of Clark Olofsson, and while it’s won awards, I found its stylised and flippant comedy-drama approach to be pretty ‘meh’. There’s vague amusement to be had, but ultimately – and for obvious reasons – presents Olofsson as ‘cool’, a cheeky bad boy out for But then, just because it’s not what I would have wanted it to be doesn’t mean it’s no good, it’s just not my bag.

While there are some bold intercuts of ‘proper’ songs featured, it’s not a series where you find yourself really paying attention to the soundtrack for the majority of the time. Listening to the soundtrack independent of the series, it’s a mystery as to why this is.

Of course, much of the interest in the soundtrack will be the fact that it was scored by Mikael Åkerfeldt of progressive metal legends Opeth – and as much as this score is overtly cinematic, it draws equally on progressive rock, funk, laid-back jazz, and 70s cop shows. The last nine of the thirty-four tracks feature vocals, and this portion of the album feels separate again, and may have worked as a separate release or bonus CD or something, as it’s quite a leap. Hell, ‘Måndag I Stockholm’ goes full Sabbath. Incongruous is an understatement and it’s hard to know what to make of it all. Then again… why not?

Varied, engaging and evocative, it’s imaginative and listenable and entertaining – and a lot less frustrating than the series itself.

Salvation / B-Movie / Loungewear – The Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, 9th September 2022

Posted: 10 September 2022 in Live
Tags: 80s, album launch, B-Movie, Indie, Leeds, Live Review, Loungewear, old goths, Psychedelic, Salvation, The Brudenell Social Club

Christopher Nosnibor

Thank fuck that not everything has been cancelled this week. Not everyone wants to show ‘respect’ by suspending al, activity to watch tributes 24/7 on every TV channel. Monarchist or not, what’s important at any time of trouble is a sense of community, and anyone looking for an example of something that makes our country great – and there are precious few right now, for a great many – it’s a music scene that continues to thrive despite everything that’s happened in recent years. The Brudenell, in particular, represents the best of everything that can be good about people, community, and the therapeutic benefits of music, particularly in a live setting.

The place is bustling with Sisters, Mission, and Bauhaus T-shirts, and Ashford and Simpson are playing over the PA. My pocket smells of the samosa from Abu Bakir, the Asian supermarket next door, that I’ve got stashed for on the train home. This is all good; it’s all so very Leeds, so very Brudenell as I mind my own business with a £3.90 pint of local ale.

I’m as excited for B-Movie as the headliners, having been introduced to them sometime in the late 80s while in my mid-teens. Admittedly, I hadn’t appreciated that they’d been active in some capacity since 2011, meaning they’ve remained an act I never expected to see live. On top of that, the last time I saw Salvation was at Leeds Met at the March Violets reunion gig in December 2007. It’s clear I’m certainly not alone in being revved at the prospect of this show for the launch of the vinyl edition of We Gave You Diamonds… Live at De Casino!.

Loungewear are an unknown quantity, and sadly many punters remain in the bar for their set, during which they deliver a neat set of layered, jangly dream pop that’s a bit shoegaze, with a dash of The Twilight Sad, and at the same time very Leeds. There’s not much movement on stage, but it kinda works in context: they’ve got decent songs and significant potential.

Loungewear

B-Movie have a lot of synths, and are a fair bit slicker than their back in the day sound. As a duo, comprising original front man Steve Hovington, and keyboardist Black Marine, they’ve revamped the songs and initially, it’s simply good to hear the songs being played. ‘This Still Life’ lands second in the set, stripped back and slowed down, brooding, gothic, and it’s well executed and suiting the arrangement. But while the performance is solid, something is sadly lacking, namely a band, and the set rapidly falls to a tedious sameness.

B-Movie

A slow and super-croony ‘Marilyn Dream’ is led by dripping piano. In fairness, ‘Institution Walls’ works well as a drama-laden, high-tension gothic horror piece, until you remember how it used to sound, at which point it becomes slightly disappointing. ‘Nowhere Girl’ receives similar treatment. It’s a genuinely classic tune, but in this format is sadly lacking, and the volume of chatter says the audience at large aren’t exactly enthralled, either. As much as the crowd may be ageing, it looks like lounge goth is never going to catch on with the old diehards, especially with an overlong set. Half an hour would have been plenty. They close with a similarly disappointing rendition of ‘Remembrance Day’. It makes sense that Hovington, who was never the most melodic singer, should work within his range, but B-Movie songs always centred around the pace and the dynamic, and tonight they have neither.

Salvation set up to Spiringsteen’s ‘Tunnel of Love’ and I’m getting peckish for the samosas, but instead grab another pint.

There’s gothbird mumdancing galore from the first bar as Salvation kick off with ‘All and More’. The sequenced bass groove is solid as the drum machine kicks along nicely. There are people up on shoulders, spreading arms and singing back every word with gusto just two songs in, and it’s a proper old-school Leeds goth party. He may resemble Mark Kermode these days, but in contrast to Steve Hovington, Danny Mass’ is still a compelling front man, and his voice hasn’t aged a day, and he belts the songs out sounding exactly as they sounded on the original eighties releases, and as they have live in the 90s and 00s and on the new live album, and there’s no two ways about it, they’re a strong live act.

‘Puppet Master,’ the first of a handful of tracks from the 1987 debut album Diamonds are Forever goes down a storm before the spindly indie goth crossover of ‘The Shining’. The two guitars intertwine magnificently, and Ben’s lead guitar work is excellent, tight but delicate.

Salvation

Mid set, after ‘She’s an Island’ they bring on live bass and drums for the second half, in recognition of the lineup that features on the album recorded on tour with The Mission, starting with ‘Sunshine Superman’, with flipside ‘Payola’ also getting an airing. It’s more overtly ‘rock’ and brings a very different kind of energy, not least of all with the extra bodies and movement on stage.

Salvation

Sadly, I seems like they’re never going to go near the songs from the debut 12” on Merciful Release, but arguably, it was a different time and a different sound that wouldn’t sit with the psychedelic indie sound of the rest of the set.

Limited train services back to York meant I had to forgo the end of the set, which makes for a bit of a lame end to a review, and while I’ll spare the rant about the impact of privatisation and the capitalism of diminishing returns, that’s the reality of attending live shows even in nearby cities, and as much as I’m here to report on shows, I’m also interested in the how we experience music as part of life, and its place in culture and society. The journey home was shit and the train delayed by half an hour, but what matters is that Salvation were great, and the vibe in the room was truly wonderful. Old goths – they’re a decent bunch, you know.

Ensanguinate – Eldritch Anatomy

Posted: 8 September 2022 in Albums
Tags: Album Review, black metal, Death, Dirt, Eldritch Anatomy, Emanzipation Productions, Ensanguinate, Filth, overdrive, satanic

Emanzipation Productions – 2nd September 2022

Christopher Nosnibor

From a certain perspective, all aspect of life can be seen to exist as one vast intertext, whereby everything connects and intersects with something, everything, else, by some devious and circuitous route. So the title of Ensanguinate’s debut long player actually makes me think of The Sisters of Mercy, whose singer, Andrew Eldritch, devised the band’s ‘head-and-star’ logo by ripping off one of the illustrations from Grey’s Anatomy – the medical textbook, not the television series. And of course, an inescapable aspect of life, which diagrams for dissection plainly remind us in the most clinical of fashions, is the inevitability of death.

I’ve sat myself down in my office to compose this review under circumstances very few would have predicted only this morning, whereby here, in Britain at least, this morning has become an evening of mourning with blanket coverage of the death of Queen Elizabeth II. I need to simply switch off from all of it, what will likely be the start of a month of commentary, with endless shots of palace gates and cavalcades while the rest of the world is on pause.

The best escape always lies in something completely different, and in strange or difficult times, pure catharsis invariably tends to be the best remedy. Ensanguinate are the very essence of catharsis, distilled to optimum potency. Their bio describes the band as ‘Slovenia’s putrid entry into the death metal grimoire of old. Leaning heavily on the genre’s occult beginnings, the band stands out by distilling Possessed, Morbid Angel, and Grotesque into a searing death/thrash assault that deviates from today’s run-of-the-mill death metal’.

The tiles are great, and speak for themselves, with the likes of ‘Cadaver Synod’, ‘Perdition’s Crown’, ‘Lowermost Baptisms’, and, my favourite, Gaping Maws of Cerberus’ perfectly summarising the music itself – snarling, subterranean, satanic guttural utterances barked against a fast and furious backdrop of guitars charred and blackened like burnt offerings strewn around the opening to the pits of hell.

The hell-for-leather riffing and frenetic drumming is all-out from the first bar, with ‘Hunted’ packing in the darkest, dirtiest sonic carnage into under four minutes, and still shoehorning in a truly frenzied guitar solo.

Ensanguinate really do work the epic solo, and while there’s a certain element of genre cliché and absurdity about it, this kind of gnarly metal is the only context where solos aren’t only excusable, but one hundred percent necessary, essential even. The slower intro on ‘Ghoul Presence’ lumbers into showy, almost symphonic territory, before it goes all-out obliterative pace and raw-throated growling.

Eldritch Anatomy is the sound of a band revelling in excess, with everything louder than everything else, and everything is dank, murky and dripping with the dirtiest distortion. It’s full-fledged filth, bowel-shaking nastiness dragged up from satanic swamps that steam so hard you can picture the sweat running down the walls as the band whip themselves into a furious frenzy.

The album’s final track, the seven-minute ‘Vile Grace’ begins altogether more delicately, with some gracefully picked clean but chorused guitar before the power chords crash in hard and slow and build to a thunderous chug. It’s hard and heavy and offers a condensed rendition of all of the album’s main elements, albeit at half the pace and so with added weight and sledgehammer impact. In doing so, it rounds off an album that has it all in terms of texture and dynamics, and delivers every note with an unstinting ferocity that’s admirable.

Watch: ‘No God Before Me’ by BLOODBATH

Posted: 7 September 2022 in Recommended Streams and Videos
Tags: Bloodbath, guitars, Lyric Video, metal @ Napalm Recordd, Napalm Records. Brutal, No Gd Before Me, Survival Of The Sickest

Sharpen your knives and prepare yourself for another BLOODBATH! Massive death metal beasts BLOODBATH are prepared to annihilate with their sixth full-length album, Survival Of The Sickest, out this Friday via Napalm Records. Vicious, unrelenting, and thrillingly violent, the critically-acclaimed, cult-followed band has no limitations, leaving the scene in shreds while skilfully fusing old-school Scandinavian harshness with a dose of Floridian U.S. death metal.

BLOODBATH have now revealed their most crushing track yet, “No God Before Me”, released alongside a brand new lyric video today! On this relentless offering, “Old Nick” Holmes and his bandmates crucify with a blasphemic explosion, ensnaring with a sinister churning riff while coalescing elements of death and doom metal. Boasting one of the album’s most hair-raising solos, “No God Before Me” is a prime example of the band’s triumphant evolution.

Jonas Renkse on “No God Before Me”:

"’No God Before Me’ is a slow, churning hymn of death, a description of a godless afterlife as well as a massive nod to the masters of sickness themselves: Morbid Angel."

Watch the lyric video for “No God Before Me” by Bloodbath:

AAAA

Watch: ‘Ma Likes to Drink’ by The Bobby Lees

Posted: 7 September 2022 in Recommended Streams and Videos
Tags: Bellevue, Ipecac Recordings, John Swab, Ma Likes to Drink, Single, The Bobby Lees, video stream

The Bobby Lees offer a final preview of their forthcoming album, Bellevue, due 7th October via Ipecac Recordings, with today’s release of “Ma Likes To Drink” and its companion video.

Drummer Macky Bowman said of the track: “To paraphrase John Berger: there is a stark difference between being naked and being a nude. To be naked is to be natural. Stripped of societal confines you are free to be as languorous or wanton as you wish. Even in naked acts of exhibition the primary spiritual benefactor will be the model, not the voyeur. Conversely to be a nude is to be reduced to no more than your physical form, displayed as a trite odalisque for the pleasure of greasy slobs. On an unrelated note we are all very proud of this song and video! We really hope you enjoy. Love you!”

The static shot clip, featuring singer Sam Quartin on a stationary bike sandwiched between a pair of mannequins, was directed by John Swab who also created the band’s videos for “Dig Your Hips”, and the video-meets-film short, “Hollywood Junkyard”. The band have also recently released the visualiser for “Monkey Mind” in anticipation of Bellevue‘s full release.

Watch the clip here:

Photo Credit: Cyrille Bellec

A Void – Dissociation

Posted: 6 September 2022 in Albums
Tags: A Void, Album Review, alternative, Dissociation, Emotional, Grunge, Hole, London, Nirvana, raw

9th September 2022

Christopher Nosnibor

London-based Parisienne alt-noise-grunge threesome A Void have been kicking around for a bit now, although most of their kicking around seems to have been in London with few ventures beyond. During lockdown – a spell where they did a few online streams and the like – I found myself contemplating the strange geography of bands – specifically how in many places, ‘local’ is used disparagingly to denote an act who’ve failed – or declined – to venture beyond the vicinity of their region, and for any ‘regional’ act to ‘make it’ nationally, they need to venture to the capital, whereas in London a band can chug around the city’s venues forever and seem like they’re actually on tour without the word ‘local’ ever cropping up.

In politics, we complain about how just London-centric everything is, and back in the 80s and 90s, the same accusations were levelled by nine tenths of the country at the music press, as represented by Melody Maker, NME, and Sounds. It seems pretty trivial now we no longer have a music press, but back then it was frustrating to read endless reviews of London gigs by bands who never played outside London.

A Void don’t just hark back to that in their remaining firmly lodged in London, but in their ramshackle grunge-influenced stylings: for all of their time on stage, they’ve stubbornly shunned the common tendency to tighten up and get slick, with their shows being wild, chaotic, and clearly joyfully cathartic, which is completely in keeping with the music itself, which is pitched as being ‘FFO Hole / Silver Chair / Babes In Toyland’, and which got me wondering if there are any FO Silverchair, or if anyone even remembers them now.

This rough, raw immediacy carried through into their debut album, Awkward and Devastated, which featured some pretty wonky playing in places. It in now way detracted from the listening experience – quite the opposite, in fact, rendering it all the more real, all the more honest – but even now, I still find myself thinking ‘wow, they left that in?’

Penned by frontwoman Camille Alexander during lockdown, this second album was recorded between 2019 and 2021 in London, with producer Jason Wilson (Reuben, Dinosaur Pile-Up), the blurbage describes it as ‘a record delivered with a visceral, personal energy that touches on themes of heartbreak to womanhood to battles with mental health.’

The first taster we got of it was ‘Sad Events Reoccur’; presented here in two conjoined parts, a six-minute slow-burner of a single felt like a pretty daring way to mark a return after couple of years, but A Void really aren’t a band to be bothered by commercial considerations and it showcased an altogether meatier, chunkier sound that suited them well, and as such, makes for a strong start to the album.

‘Stepping on Snails’, also released as a single, has a certain swing to it, and is a winner with its explosive chorus and vocal harmonies, but it’s the thick, gritty bass that really holds everything together as the guitar wanders around hither and thither, ad I’m reminded of the squalling mess of Nirvana’s In Utero, where at times the guitar seems to serve to provide only texture and tone, while the rhythm section is what keeps the shape and prevents it from collapsing into incoherent noise.

There’s a reflective tone to ‘One of a Kind’, at least in the verses, before the distortion kicks in on the guitar and it’s a well-realised slice of tortured angst that runs the full gamut of churning emotions.

Dissociation is a giant leap forward from Awkward and Devastated, which was appropriately titled and we can see just how much everything about the band has evolved. The songwriting is more structured, but without losing any of its sense of dynamics, and the production really has optimized a much, much more solid performance in playing terms. It’s still raw and fiery, Camille still roars like she’s possessed and the force is strong, but this feels altogether more professional. That should by no means be equated to overpolished or selling out in any way: this newfound focus facilitates a more accurate articulation of the songs and the band’s intentions.

There’s not a dud track here, and the ones that aren’t instant grabs are strong growers, from the barren, bereft ‘2B Seen’ and ‘5102’ that revive the spirit of the criminally underrated Solar Race to the more accessible ‘In Vain’ that actually slips into a groove and bursts into an anthemic finale with a hook worthy of Alanis Morissette while at the same time bringing a touching emotional sincerity.

To describe an album as ‘mature’ feels like a vaguely damning praise that connotes a transition towards dullness and mediocrity: this is most certainly not the case with Dissociation. It’s just an altogether better realised set of songs: A Void have lost absolutely none of the fire, but have found the best method to get everything across, and it punches hard.

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Archive for September, 2022

Leatherette – Sunbathing

Tracksuit – Ghost of Rome

Watch: ‘Violate Consensus Reality’ by Psychonaut

GLDN – Suicide Machine

Mikael Åkerfeldt – Clark: A Dramatic Score by Mikael Åkerfeldt from the Netflix Series

Ensanguinate – Eldritch Anatomy

Watch: ‘No God Before Me’ by BLOODBATH

Watch: ‘Ma Likes to Drink’ by The Bobby Lees

A Void – Dissociation