Genre : Post-punk, Noise rock, Math-rock, Mathcore, Industrial, Alternative rock
Released : April 21st, 2023
Label : Church Road Records
FFO : Mclusky, Every Time I Die, '68, METZ, Sugar Horse
The St. Pierre Snake Invasion are part of those bands whom I might have never stumbled upon were it not for the existence of ArcTanGent festival, and given the fact that they too are based in Bristol, their ties with ATG run deep and have made them a quintessential act of the festival over the years, as well as representatives of the type of forward-thinking alternative music the festival represents.
Unless I'm misremembering or mixing things up, the future of TSPSI seemed uncertain not that long ago. However, this third full-length release of theirs seems to have re-energised and propulsed the band higher than ever before.
Indeed, "Galore" succeeds in retaining the brash, volatile hardcore punk energy the bristolians have become acclaimed for, while also seeing the musicianship at work being further honed, but most noticeably, diversifying their sound in a meaningful way.
"Galore" definitely displays a great deal of maturity in its approach to songwriting as well as confidence when it comes to the endgoal of the type of sound the band wanted to achieve for this new step in their career.
The riffs and rythms sound dangerously angular throughout the record.
Couple this with the industrial electronic elements organically weaved into the majority of the songs and TSPSI's music takes on a newfound, uncanny mechanical nature to it.
Not necessarily mechanical as in Meshuggah's pristine and terrifyingly precise clockwork, but rather a rusty, overheating, malfunctioning piece of factory machinery gone rogue, posing a threat to everyone in its vicinity.
Although my clumsy analogy may sound like it could be belittling, what I mean by "rusty" and "malfunctioning" is that despite having this mechanical feel, "Galore" is packed with personality, character and is often unpredictable and unconventional in the way it unpacks its arrangements of dissonant guitars, outlandish harsh electronics and odd rythms.
The major part of that "character" undeniably comes from vocalist Damien Sayell's charismatic performance, bringing a rock n' roll swagger to the slower moments of the album and elevating the chaos when the "machinery" is no longer able to contain the turbulent fire at the heart of TSPSI's music during the more abrasive and noisy sections that exist somewhere between punk, noise rock and even mathcore.
Mark Roberts's production on "Galore" is also a major asset to the album, making the performances sound both clear and dynamic.
There's never a moment where the amalgamation of electronics and organic loudness from the band becomes a hard-to-decipher blur ; every hit of drums, vocal rasp, shriek of electronics is perceptible and the lower-end provided by bassist Sanjay Patel is key to making "Galore" sound as huge as it does while the efficiency of guitarists Patrick Daly and Szack Notaro's energetic dissonant chaos hits with the desired intensity.
If I hadn't made it clear enough yet, The St. Pierre Snake Invasion do a fantastic job of bringing together the organic, untamed rawness of punk together with the more experimental and precise technicality of boundary-pushing alternative music, making "Galore" one of the more exciting things to come out of the UK this year thus far in the realms adjacent to punk and rock music.
Bandcamp : https://tspsi.bandcamp.com/album/galore
Favourite tracks : "Submechano", "To Sleep Well", "Every Sun", "The Overlook",
"That There's Fighting Talk", "I Pray To Liars" (so the whole thing, pretty much).
Comentarios