Robyn Writes

Review: Departures/Moose Blood – Split [EP]

Two of the UK’s most exciting up and coming bands, Departures and Moose Blood, have got together to record a split record, due to be released on 12 November through Fist in the Air and No Sleep Records. Showcasing two tracks apiece, this split shows off the best bits that each band has to offer. With the hardcore aggression bounding out of Departures and an unashamedly emo delivery from Moose Blood, the record makes welcome listening for alternative fans.

The first two tracks come from Departures and in first track, ‘A Song For The Sunset’, the Scottish lads show off a strong drum presence, which is always a good sign, as it swings into life with sweet riffs and harsh vocals. The song manages to assault listeners while also taking time to slow the song in parts, if only for a while, before kicking back aggressively with their hardcore beats and riffs. The slower sections are good not only to show off a diversity of styles, but also to give centre stage to the vocals which really get the chance to stand out while the drum beat and guitars mellow.

Second track, ‘Closing Doors’, features a slower, rhythmic and guitar dominated opening, before the vocals again have their chance to stand at the front of the musical charge. “I can’t be running away, if there’s nowhere left to run to”; the emotively screamed vocals are charged full of belligerence and hostility, but they can’t take all of the credit – even though their role is at times subsidiary, the drums and guitars perfectly compliment the atmosphere created by the vocals and make the track an angst-filled joy to listen to.

The differences between the two bands can be seen in Moose Blood’s first feature on the record, ‘Stay Here’. The vocals are not as coarse, but this gives the harsher sounds, when they are brought to the fore, all the more effective. There is a slow and steady instrumental rhythm filling the background, but also some welcome guitar dominated moments, displaying an ease as a band, allowing the music to speak for itself in instrumentally driven sections.

‘Girl’ is the final track we are treated to and has become my personal favourite. It creeps to life, easing in at a very slow pace. We are left with a lone guitar and vocals, with the guitar more in the fore as the vocals come through in the background, crooning quietly over a girl “you are the best thing darling, this side of town”. This is all true until the 1.47min-ish mark when it kicks into a new lease of life. The vocals are stronger; backing vocals are repetitively chanted as the drums and more guitars pick the song up and throw it to a crescendo, asking an anonymous girl to spend the night: “Stay with me tonight, stay with me tonight”.

Two fantastic songs a-piece for two fantastic up-and-coming bands. The chance to see these playing live together shouldn’t be missed and they play several shows together at the beginning of November. If you can get to see them, then REPRESENT! Don’t miss this chance.

4 out of 5 high fives!

Review: Bangers – Crazy Fucking Dreams

When Bangers release a new record, you always know what to expect. Big riffs and big rants. Crazy Fucking Dreams is no exception. Like a gruffer, British Descendents but with more references to the ocean and the government, Bangers rip through ten absolute… well, bangers.

That’s not to say that Bangers don’t have a few surprises up their sleeve. From the strange, psychedelic solo filled with weird panting in ‘Part Animal’ to the unexpected horns in opening tune ‘A Curious Mix’, Bangers are stepping into new and dangerous territory. However, it all comes together smoothly and it’s barrels of fun. Not enough bands incorporate horns in some way or another these days, but that’s a conversation for another time. Possibly my favourite thing about a Bangers record is that it always feels like a conversation. They’re brilliant storytellers, and ‘The Woods’ is the perfect example of this – in the muted verses, Roo embarks on a story about existence and being before they all launch into an absolutely massive chorus. But even throughout the story, there’s always a question to be asked, a thought to be probed, and you can’t help but give in. Lyrically, the record’s as great as you’d come to expect from Bangers – my personal favourite being the entirety of ‘Blind Hindsight’, as in its message to ‘fuck nostalgia’, the song itself sounds like a complete throwback to 90s skatepunk, and Bangers’ keen sense of irony and self-effacing humour is well and truly in play. And of course, there’s a lot of bloody good rants all over.

What else is present is gleeful, unabashed punk rock fury. I told you there were big riffs, and I wasn’t lying. If there was one track that could sum up the whole record, ‘Captain’s Log’ pretty much does it. It’s got some punk-as-fuck bass, furious drumming and about a minute of vocals before the instrumental takes over and they take it down a notch. And this is why Bangers are better than most people ever, because they’re unafraid of kicking out sweet jams and killer solos while still maintaining an enviable freneticism. Good stuff indeed.

This might possibly be the best Bangers record yet. But I still maintain they should have named it Miley Cyruz.

4.5 out of 5 high fives!

Review: AFI – Burials

Burials is AFI’s ninth album, and as with every record they’ve released since Sing The Sorrow, it sounds distinctly different to its predecessor. In the case of Burials, AFI have left behind the 80s twinged pop-rock and instead, have come forth with something far darker, rawer and utterly compelling.

It can be said that if nothing else, AFI know how to do a bloody good intro, and it’s fantastic to see that make a return. The Sinking Night unifies all of AFI’s talents, with Adam Carson’s pounding drums, Hunter Burgan’s rumbling bass, Jade Puget’s bleak guitar and Davey Havok’s outstanding vocals creates a sonic landscape of utter despair, all while giving you full-body shivers before jumping into lead single ‘I Hope You Suffer’. It sets a difficult precedent, but AFI keep it going through all thirteen tracks. The Crash Love vibes haven’t totally disappeared – the dark pop of ‘A Deep Slow Panic’, ’17 Crimes’ and ‘Heart Stops’ could fit comfortably on that record. However, there’s a heavier electronic presence, no doubt influenced by Havok and Puget’s side project, Blaqk Audio, and industrial-style synths permeate throughout, touching songs like ‘No Resurrection’, ‘The Conductor’ and ‘Wild’, but never taking the foreground. Instead, AFI lay down some of the most punk rock riffs that they’ve written in recent years. ‘Wild’, for example, starts with Carson laying down some serious beats before Puget kicks in with pure punk pageantry, followed by some proto-punk synths for good measure. And of course, in typical AFI fashion, final track, ‘The Face Beneath The Waves’ is atmospheric, inimitably dark and arresting, with as much despair as you can muster. Beautiful.

It’s worth noting that the rhythm section of this record is probably the shining star – Burgan and Carson are the ultimate dream team, and neither have sounded better than on Burials. Nevertheless, this is the most coherent AFI have sounded in a long time. Despite taking a different approach yet again, Havok and Puget have laid the foundations for thirteen solid tracks, and while Crash Love was so disparate in its style, Burials is totally complete, despite its innovation. That’s as a unit as well – the band haven’t sounded so in sync for a long time, and it’s great to finally see all those elements coming together properly.

Burials, as Havok has stated in multiple interviews since it was announced, is the tale of a broken heart. AFI’s music has always been very emotionally led, usually veiled in Baudelaire-esque metaphor, but that veil has dropped slightly in Burials. While Havok’s lyrics can’t avoid the poetic all the time, Burials is a lot more personal. In ‘The Face Beneath The Waves’, he asks if his former love can “Tell me what it’s like to hold a heart while it shatters, ” and you can feel the vitriol and the pain as he sings. ‘I Hope You Suffer’ can’t be any plainer in its lyrical content. It’s this and more that makes Burials, in its personal nature, perhaps the most genuine AFI record in a while. But for all its misery, this record is catharsis – it’s a chance for Havok to rise out of the ashes, and Burials is where he’s at his finest.

To say that Burials is the best thing that AFI have produced since The Art Of Drowning might seem a bit ambitious. “But what about the lyrical genius of Sing The Sorrow or the slick pop hooks of Decemberunderground?“, you might be thinking (but you probably won’t be, I’ve come to accept that I actually don’t know that many AFI fans). Burials combines both of those, plus Crash Love‘s sense of style to create an effortlessly enduring record, one that will resonate with fans and newcomers alike. From a personal standpoint, it’s been a long time since an AFI album has evoked me with the same kind of rush that I had when I first stumbled upon them, all that time ago. So yes – it is their best work since The Art Of Drowning. It’s also the best album to grace my stereo for eons and will no doubt hold that title for a very, very long time to come.

5 out of 5 high fives!

Review: Mothertrucker – The Power Of Independent Trucking

Bravely sporting the most uber-macho of band monikers is four-piece Mothertrucker: the imagery in the name soliciting an inevitability of a sordid aural pummelling that rings mostly true across these six solely instrumental compositions. Although Mothertrucker are a bunch of certified bong-fiends, this isn’t just a selection of groove-laden fuzz delivered by a troupe drooling crusties. Instead, the group’s progressive intuitions provide a selection of tracks that twist and mutate from bleary-eyed bludgeons into moments of startling clarity and purity, all the while admirably sidestepping the pitfalls of tedium that purely instrumental acts are at constant odds to avoid.

With vocals defiantly absent, it’s left to the guitars to take precedent and construct an engaging narrative, which they do with a certain aplomb. There are some truly crushing riffs on display, soaked through with last night’s dirty bongwater and lathered in fuzz. ‘Duff’ is a plodding stoner feast, with strings tuned so low at times they seem to be dragging on the ground – until the guitarist steps on a frazzled effects pedal that transports his instrument into the stratosphere in a series of soaring guitar lines. The post-rock indebted ‘Vigo’ lays in stark contrast to the rather uncompromising chug of ‘Duff’ and the metamorphic sprawl of ‘Reef’, eschewing delicate nuances and melodicism that betrays their macho-inclined namesake. Winding its way towards a somewhat transcendent finale, ‘Vigo’ commands a stunning and affecting resonance, the sheer emotional impetus contained in each instrument’s sublime delivery is certainly commendable. In a recurring musical theme of transformation, closer ‘Crypt Stalker’ mutates from delay-ridden twinkly guitar lines into a sordid and rollicking monster in which squalling guitars tear at the aural palette like a knife through a canvas. By the time the closing death-throws are reached, the track is unrecognisable from the skyward trajectory implied by the Explosions In The Sky guitar work, marking out the intro as a lucid daydream in opposition to the grit and violence of the track’s finale.

Despite songs lengths that reach toward the seven minute mark, there is no instance of the music getting bogged down in tiresome repetition or stalling due to lack of worthwhile ideas. Mothertrucker’s are undoubtedly progressively minded, always aiming to take their songs toward musical pathways you’d least expect yet refrain from the often enticing pitfalls of long-windedness and over indulgence. The EP is a perfect example of a progressive instrumental band getting it right, maintaining interest through inventive musicianship and an abundance of dynamism that challenges expectation – music that aims for the epic but doesn’t mull about in getting there.

4 out of 5 high fives!

Review: Panic! At The Disco – Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die!

It’s always been hard to quantify Panic! At The Disco. They’re not really a rock band. They’re definitely not pop-punk. Based on the current definition of ‘pop’, looking at the typical chart fare, they certainly don’t fit in with that either. However, whatever they are, I don’t think anyone minded when Ryan Ross left and they stopped doing that Beatles rip-off shit. And after the work of genius that Vices and Virtues was, it seemed almost impossible that they’d be able to top it.

But they did.

Admittedly, Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die! didn’t seem it was going to be a huge hit at first. Lead single ‘Miss Jackson’, was a huge departure, even for P!ATD, sounding too similar to Fall Out Boy’s ‘My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark’ to be a coincidence. It didn’t quite have P!ATD’s usual charm, either, and stands as the weakest song on the record. Thankfully, following single ‘This Is Gospel’ seemed far more promising, with a blinder of a chorus and a very fun video, carrying just the right level of quirkiness that we’ve come to adore P!ATD for. However, Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die! is far more mature than any of their other records. Fuelled by a love of 80s synthpop, tracks like ‘The Vegas Lights’ and ‘Girls/Girls/Boys’ won’t fail to get you dancing with their tales of Vegas style hedonism, whereas ‘Nicotine’, my personal favourite, is every bit as infectious as ‘Camisado’ or ‘Time To Dance’. Everything goes on this record, and any ill-founded doubt that may have been in place over the lyrics after Ross’s departure are firmly blown away, as P!ATD get deep as well as sexy. None of it is particularly complex, but in this, lies its brilliance, much like its predecessor.

It’s worth noting that Brendon Urie’s vocals have never been more accomplished than on this record; while he’s always been an incredible singer and a true frontman, he’s given free reign on this record to experiment with a number of different styles and he never seems out of his depth. It seems that adding Dallon Weekes as a permanent member of the band was an excellent decision too, as this record is funky as. There’s basslines here so filthy that you need two showers straight after listening to them. Spencer Smith is as solid and skilled as ever – despite the album’s heavy electric influence, there isn’t an overreliance on programmed drums, and it’s impossible to listen to the album without noticing a clever fill or a pounding and commanding rhythm.

While Panic! At The Disco might have always had the free reign to do what they want, Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die! is more bold and brilliant than I ever could have imagined. Ten tracks is all they need to steal your heart. Don’t be afraid to let them.

5 out of 5 high fives!