Once you get past the somewhat corn(y)ea name of this young band from Aberdeen there are some interesting ideas on their debut 5 track EP. There’s not a huge lot to say about them other than what they have stated, which is that they play a mix of black and death metal with hints of grind and some ambient patches. We have 21 minutes of music to make our minds up and to be honest it is not as straightforward as one would have first anticipated.
Starting with instrumental ‘Descending’ we have a track of two parts really, the first a touch on the drone side with reverberating prowess and gloomy apocalyptic tones, the second more of a melodic build up with some neat playing drawing you in and making you wonder what is to come next. The band set about moving off to ‘Raise The Banners’ and here the frenzied clamour hones in with some feral vocal rasps putting things on a much more extreme path, definitely somewhere between death and black. Melodicism and brutality run alongside each other, the beastly vocals snarl savagely and the musicians gallop away, drums bouncing and keeping pace. Then the ambience comes in with some ghostly piano making it all somewhat ethereal before close. ‘Cyclops’ roars like a big monster being pelted with rocks, before slowing with another facet that subtly creeps up and airs of the neo-classical about it. Obviously, this young band have a lot of things to pack their music with alongside good ballast and chunky sound and presenting it all via a professional promo disc. The main thing I have found with them is that the songs are far from immediate and do take a while to sink in, not a bad thing it just highlights the fact that this lot are far from formulaic and certainly not easy to simply dismiss among a sea of similar sounding artists. The ambient ideas mainly at end of tracks bring them to a natural conclusion and I kind of like them as things are not carried on tediously and tracks are still short and compact rather than being allowed to meander.
‘Contagion’ next is not only an apt title but a song with some galloping chops about it and a good underlying melody that grows on the listener. The drummer and guitarists give a roughshod ride and it has plenty of head-banging rhythm about it too. Just when you think it is over though there is a passage where someone unleashes their inner Mendelssohn with some romantic piano work before it steams back in adding symphonic elements as well. Lot’s going on but somehow it works and definitely adds unexpected dimensions. Last number ‘The Deep’ broods heavily and ties things up, again the eclectic nature of the band and a certain schizophrenic zeal behind them making it that bit different from the norm. I guess some may not get their heads around it all and find this an impenetrable mess but I enjoyed its wide-reaching ideas and lack of obvious convention. I will be keeping an ear out for Cyclops Cataract in the future…if not an eye!
(7/10 Pete Woods)
19/09/2020 at 9:11 pm
Thank you for the review Pete. It’s great that you got what we were trying to do i.e. not entirely conventional.
We appreciate you taking the time to check us out.