Two bands from the Portland and Oakland areas of the USA both hit my radar with excellent debut albums last year. Alaric with their self titled album did things in a way that I would not have expected from an American band, immersing us in a sound that owed a huge amount to both post punk and gothic music that had originated in the UK. Taking inspiration from bands such as Killing Joke, Rudimentary Peni and Christian Death their strong album was a doomy and gloomy morass of sounds and textures that were in their own way original and compelling and it was an album that took me right back in time to the late 80s’ and left me hungering for more. Equally original were Atriarch whose ‘Forever The End’ did according to others hint towards Gothdom but for me had much more in common with the apocalyptic, post-black strains of bands such as Altar Of Plagues and Wolves In The Throne Room. I have noted from their Facebook updates that the groups have hit the road together at various times so it seems almost natural that they share space on this new release courtesy of 20 Buck Spin.
The first three tracks are courtesy of Alaric and ‘Memory Assault’ instantly immerses us in a gloom laden fog of skeletal guitars and moribund vocals. In fact as far as the latter are concerned the more I listened the more I came up with similarities to Richard Butler of the Psychedelic Furs. There is a strong melody around this and the punk sound of everyone from the more melodic bands from the anarcho scene as well as a certain Batcave drenched guitar sound and Amebix like intent. For me this lot are doing things better than any new band I have heard playing this form of music in years. You can also cite the likes of Joy Division and New Order when you get to the thick bass lines and tribal beat of ‘Weep.’ This number really lives up to its name as it is misery incarnate due to the wrist slitting melody which also summons up memories of The Cure at their most agonised.
It is when the Atriarch two tracks start that I can see the similarities between the two bands even if I had not thought much of them before. The first ‘Oblivion’ sounds like it could well even be the same band if it were not for the more strident and angered vocals of singer Lenny Smith. It really does have that impending nuclear war, post punk feel behind it and it hits home with clarity. After slowly ebbing in, final track ‘Offerings’ does however see the group hitting maximum payload as it goes into a down tempo, doom laden fog of meandering riffs and then a volatile and violent blackened swagger, sweeping us into a raging climax.
The two bands really work together on this split and if you have never heard either they compliment each other perfectly and will give you two for the price of one as far as your discovery is concerned. Just to top it off the artwork looks fantastic even via a digital release so getting this on vinyl is definitely the way to go. Both bands are apparently hard at work on their next albums so this is a great prelude of things to come.
(7/10 Pete Woods)
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