STACK #160 Feb 2018

MUSIC REVIEWS

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Montero Performer

Watain Trident Wolf Eclipse Watain are one of those anomalies that exist within the grey area between the underground and the mainstream, operating within either realm as they choose. They truly are a band that follows their own path. This path, however, brought a great them deal of derision when they released The Wild Hunt in 2013. That album saw the group flirt with clean vocals and a more streamlined sound, confusing many black metal fans. With Trident Wolf Eclipse , Watain’s intent is clear: auditory domination. The three- piece go for the throat here, taking no prisoners and making no excuses as they embody the dangerous, unrelenting darkness that is black metal. (Century Media/EMI) Simon Lukic U.S. Girls In A Poem Unlimited A striking portrait of U.S. Girls mastermind Meghan Remy graces the cover of In A Poem Unlimited , the project’s eighth album. Velvet For Sale is a hypnotic introduction, with following track Rage Of Plastics erupting with a startling trumpet. Mad As Hell is the closest the act will ever get to a disco anthem, while Incidental Boogie brings its industrial influences to the fore. As always, Remy dazzles her audience with an array of dynamic sounds – Pearly Gates incorporates a choir and Latin-inspired guitar samples, while Poem is steered by a dreamy synth. Remy creates an undeniable atmosphere within her music, and its efficacy invites listeners to surrender themselves to the sounds. (4AD/Remote Control) Holly Pereira

A psych-pop modernist and sensitive soul, Ben Montero’s band transfigures and turns like his songs. This time accompanied by Jay Watson (Tame Impala/GUM/Pond) and Riccardo Damian (an engineer working out of Mark Ronson’s London shop), this smaller circle trades some of the pomp of 2013’s The Loving Gaze for gentler moments, with a sensibility familiar to any fan of Montero’s introspective visual art. Performer ’s spindly rhythms and gauzy melodies make for a record easy to slink into, getting lost in its technicolour, watercolour, hypercolour, splotches. Guitar music rarely feels this saucy. (Chapter/Inertia) Jake Cleland

Hockey Dad Blend Inn

Windang lords Hockey Dad have completed another couple of laps around the world on the back of debut album Boronia , and returned with Blend Inn , their mature and highly infectious second album. Opening track My Stride is a resounding example of their assured progression

as a band, with singer/guitarist Zach Stephenson’s ripened vocals realising the potential they showed in previous releases. There are some slower moments on the 12-track effort, via the jangling Danny and the solemn Whatever , while the surf-punk energy on Stalker and Disappoint Me take things back to a more familiar level from the childhood best friends. Lyrically, the pair deal with missing home from the road ( Homely Feeling ), self-deprecating vicariousness ( I Wanna Be Everybody ) and social pressures ( Join The Club ). Surprisingly, drummer Billy Fleming makes his vocal debut on penultimate track Sweet Release – his Aussie twang the audible equivalent of watching Russell Coight munch down on a cheesymite scroll. (Farmer &The Owl/Inertia)Tim Lambert

The Wombats Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life British indie-rock geniuses The Wombats have a knack for telling it like it is, and nothing has changed with the release of their fourth studio album Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life . Their hard-hitting, fun-loving lyrics take you from fits of giggles (“Watering plastic plants in the hope that they’ll grow”) to holding back tears (“It’s hard to keep your chin up when your guts are on the floor”) sometimes within the same verse. Still managing to put the pleasure and the pain of the human consciousness into palatable songform for us mere humans, The Wombats continue to ask life’s most paramount questions: “is there really such a thing as too much fun, and ice cream in the sun?” (Warner) Alesha Kolbe

Fall Out Boy M A N I A The one-time “therapists pumping through your speakers” now make references to Nikki Sixx, having given up breaking hearts for dropping the bass. Well, Sonny Moore was an emo; why shouldn’t the switch- up look just as good on Wentz et al.? And it does, although it’s harder to see anyone except Patrick Stump through the sta-DM crunch. Latter-day FOB albums are primarily an exercise in seeing what Stump can throw his voice against next, and here it’s so commanding and confident it takes on a kind of 'voice of God' quality. It’s all so raucous it makes one curious when he’s going to go full Sleigh Bells. (Island/Universal) Jake Cleland

Corrosion Of Conformity No Cross No Crown You’d be hard pressed to find a band as chameleon-like as Corrosion Of Conformity. From their beginnings as a crossover group, they have morphed into many other forms over their 36 years. No Cross No Crown sees the return of vocalist/guitarist Pepper Keenan, resurrecting the line-up that drove the band at their commercial apex. Keenan’s return brings the removal of the hardcore elements of their last couple of albums, and brings their heavy metal roots back to the fore. No Cross No Crown is the sound of a band comfortable in their skin; fingers crossed they hold onto it for a while before they decide to shed it again. (Nuclear Blast/Caroline) Simon Lukic

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FEBRUARY 2018

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