Posts Tagged ‘trio’

Watch: ‘Watching Wax’ by Berries

Posted: 30 July 2024 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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BERRIES are back!

Today, the trio are pleased to confirm details of their new album BERRIES.

Due for release on 18th October via the Xtra Mile Recordings label, the album is preceded by its lead single ‘Watching Wax’, which is available to hear – and watch – now:

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With its scrawled-out staccato guitar licks, spidery basslines, and venomous lyrical stings, first cut ‘Watching Wax’ signals a deadly return from London trio.

Dripping with a febrile intensity and packed with scattergun hooks to match, ‘Watching Wax’ finds BERRIES reflecting on the restlessness of anxiety and the constant cloud it can cast over our day-to-day. As the band state:

“‘Watching Wax’ is about escaping your worries for the day and attempting to give your mind a rest. The lyrics touch on fears for our future selves, looming anxieties that you can’t suppress and the desire to have a perfect day without your daily stormy thoughts.”

The first indicator of how the follow-up to their acclaimed debut, How We Function is shaping up, the single finds BERRIES honing their art for the unpredictable and growing in confidence. And as its eponymous title, ‘BERRIES’, may already make clear, this is a band determined to make a statement with their second full-length outing.
While the band have never shied away from brutally honest admissions or difficult subject matters like struggles with mental health, ‘BERRIES’ finds them weaponising them into a set of fearlessly assertive tracks that seize strength from darkness. As BERRIES explain:

“This album is about battling intrusive thoughts and finding contentment in your day, however big or small those moments are. It’s a journey to finding your own space and being comfortable in it. We haven’t held back with this album – it’s raw, honest, and a true reflection of BERRIES.”

Teaming up with production legend Adrian Bushby (Foo Fighters, Muse, Everything Everything), who took on mixing duties for the record, listeners will almost certainly feel that turbo-boost coursing through the veins of BERRIES 2.0.

While veering between Riot Grrrl-esque discordance and thunderous grunge-rock anthems ripe for the big rooms, ‘BERRIES’ also finds a band spreading their wings with sonic explorations into shapeshifting math-rock (as on opener ‘Barricades’), epic post-rock nods (on closer ‘Crumpled Clothes’), through shades of Power-Pop (as on the infectious ‘Narrow Tracks’), and even tender, unadorned acoustica (as on ‘Balance’). Reflecting of making ‘BERRIES’, the band add:

“We really pushed ourselves creatively and out of our comfort zone, especially with the acoustic track and working with mixing engineer Adrian Bushby. We’re super proud of what we’ve written and created.”

Following a spate of recent shows road-testing new material in support of punk/rock legends the likes of The Subways, Skinny Lister, Feeder, and Sleeper, plus Newcastle noiseniks The Pale White, BERRIES are now ready to take their latest work out on the road for a series of headline dates of their own.

With 8 dates planned for October and November, following the release of ‘BERRIES’, catch the band performing new material and more at these fixtures as follows:

BERRIES – HEADLINE TOUR 2024
OCTOBER

23 – Brighton, The Prince Albert

24 – Nottingham, Bodega

25 – Leeds, Hyde Park Book Club

26 – Manchester, Gullivers

29 – Bristol, Thekla

30 – London, Lexington

31 – Norwich, Waterfront

NOVEMBER

1 – Southampton, Heartbreakers

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Death Pill – Death Pill

Posted: 15 April 2023 in Albums
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New Heavy Sounds

Christopher Nosnibor

Death Pill most certainly aren’t signed to a major label, aren’t pop-punk, and truly understand adversity. If you want authenticity, then this is the band you need. The Ukrainian all-girl hardcore power trio sell themselves as having a ‘Riot Grrl’ vibe while citing ‘the classic punk of Black Flag, The Distillers and Circle Jerks, to modern outfits like Axe Rash and the thrash metal of Nervosa and Exodus’ as influences.

And fucking hell, do they work with all of those influences and distil them into something raw and powerful! Their self-titled debut contains nine tracks, none of which runs for more than four minutes, and they blast hard.

The fact they are an all-female act is significant and noteworthy. Writing as a white, middle-class male, it hard to write about this without sounding like a patronising patriarchal toerag, so I’ll simply quote singer/guitarist Mariana here:

“Just imagine: You are a 20-year-old girl. Society constantly puts pressure on you: you should find a nice husband, have children and at the same time build a successful career. But no one asks what do you really want? What are exactly your interests and ambitions?

Because maybe you want to be a punk rock star?

Yes, I do and even against it all. I can create a female non-commercial band, play heavy high-quality music, and ignite the crowd. After all, rock is not only about brutal men with curly long hair, right?

Some do it with weapons in their hands, some volunteer and help in any way they can. Hard times, but right now we have a real chance to change lives for the better.”

Death Pill address issues: they address political issues, they address female issues, they address human issues. They do so without fear, without self-censorship, and consequently, deliver an album that rages hard. A couple of the songs have previewed here – ‘Расцарапаю Ебало’ and ‘Miss Revolt’, and both showcase the band’s raw metal-infused style perfectly.

The album delivers more of the same, from the whiplash-inducing brutal chug and churn of the opener, ‘Dirty Rotten Youth’ to the closer ‘Would You Marry Me’.

‘Die For Vietnam’ is as frantically-paced full-throttle driving punk-metal you’re going to hear, and Death Pill don’t go easy for a second. ‘It’s a Joke’ may lift from spiky post-punk reference points, but it comes with near-demonic vocals and draws together black metal and goth. ‘Kill The Traitors’ is perhaps the most furious song you’ll hear all year. It goes beyond political and is utterly punishing.

Overall, as an album, Death Pill is fucking gnarly. It’s dominated by driving guitars, thrashing out three or four chords at a hundred miles an hour. It’s proper punk alright.

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