BEST OF BRITISH: PLEIADES, SEA MOSQUITO, WARCRAB

(Andy Synn presents three more metallic morsels from his green and unpleasant homeland)

As always I’ve done my best to cover as many of the homegrown acts from here in the UK who have released albums this year and, ultimately… have probably only written about a small fraction of them.

But that’s always going to be the case, I suppose. I’m just one person after all (at least, I think I am) and can only do so much with the limited time that I have.

Plus, to be brutally honest, because I only write about albums I actually like that means some good stuff that I, personally, just don’t really rate is going to end up getting left by the wayside.

So consider this my apology to every band and artist I wasn’t able to feature this year. It’s not you, it’s me.

PLEIADES – AFFINITY WITH

After listening to Affinity With a number of times over the last month or so, I’d be willing to hazard a guess that at least some of the members of Pleiades are big Thrice fans, as their emotionally eloquent, heart-on-sleeve brand of progressive Post-Hardcore definitely shares a fair bit of musical DNA in common with the seminal Californian crew.

But that’s far from all they are (if there’s not a bit of Glassjaw and/or Envy in the mix here as well I’ll eat my hat), as the opening pairing of “Honeyguide” and “Siberian” quickly demonstrate, effortlessly showcasing the band’s blend of crooning cleans and cathartic screams, soothing melody and anxious energy, interspersed with touches of shimmering Post-Rock ambience and an almost Mathcore-ish sense of unpredictability (most often supplied by the clever drum-work of sticksman OJ Riley, who might just be the album’s underappreciated MVP).

As good as those first two tracks are though, Affinity With really hits its stride with the soulful, subtly proggy, strains of “Stomach”, whose outwelling emotion and complex-yet-catchy songwriting give you an even better glimpse of the band’s true potential, an impression which is then only reaffirmed by the even more epic and anthemic “Looming” and the moody, mesmerising “Universal”.

And while it’s not all smooth-sailing from then on – “Amos Clift”, despite its best efforts, only really finds its own identity  pretty late in the game (as much as I like it, I’ve definitely heard that particular chorus, or some very close variant thereof, from the song’s first half before), and “Treppenwitz” is an otherwise short-but-sweet shot of simple-but-effective Post-Hardcore whose only real crime is that it’s very much overshadowed by the bigger, and better, songs surrounding it – the high points (including the captivating “Honeyguide II”, and the unashamedly tender – right until it isn’t – “Tongue”) more than make up for any slight dips.

Finishing with the sublime slow-burn of “No Living Thing”, which leans – arguably – even more into the Post-Rock side of the band’s sound to undeniably impressive effect (which includes some of the most marvellous multi-vocal layering on the entire album), Affinity With serves as a more than worthy introduction to a band who, on the evidence presented here, have a truly bright future ahead of them.

SEA MOSQUITO – IGITUR

Hands up if you’re a bit of a weirdo, who likes weird music made by weird people? Most of you? That’s good (and about what I thought).

Well, allow me to introduce you to Igitur, the debut album (plus accompanying novella) from London lunatics Sea Mosquito, whose music combines throbbing Industrial undertones and agoraphobic ambience reminiscent of the likes of Lustmord and Treha Sektori with the sort of abrasively off-kilter Black Metal that wouldn’t sound out of place coming from the likes of Blut Aus Nord or the sadly-defunct Dodecahedron.

As you may have already guessed, it’s not an album that plays by the normal rules by any means, and the duo’s focus on crafting an altogether unsettling, borderline otherworldly, atmosphere on tracks like “Those Vanished Things” and “Filth. Disorder. Iniquity.” only reinforces this impression that Sea Mosquito have no interest in providing their audience with an easy-listening experience.

That’s not to say that Igitur doesn’t also provide its fair share of immediately abrasive thrills and chills – “The Dagger of Abraham”, for examples, practically erupts in an orgy of screeching distortion, blistering blastbeats, and skittering electronica, while “Iron Destined For Rust” combines feverish intensity and some absolutely feral vocals with a pulsing, post-industrial undercurrent of pure dread (and even the aformentioned “Filth…” ultimately transforms into an absolute torrent of discord and dissonance in its scorching second half) – but even these clearly aren’t intended for the fearful of faint-of-heart.

Sure, the final product doesn’t quite manage to escape the looming shadow of its more (in)famous predecessors and progenitors – though, for a debut album, it makes a damn fine attempt – but it’s a consistently surprising collection of ideas and impulses which (especially during disturbingly dynamic closer “Vexilla Regis”, which makes full use of its extended run-time to explore all the strange and sinister corners of the group’s ever-mutating sound) bodes extremely well for the band’s future.

WARCRAB – THE HOWLING SILENCE

There’s been a fair amount of digital ink spilled about Warcrab‘s new album already, and with good reason, because when this band are firing on all cylinders – which they definitely are for most, if not all, of The Howling Silence – they’re pretty much an unstoppable force of nature.

This is particularly apparent when they’re charging full-steam ahead on songs like outstanding opener “Orbital Graveyard” and the almost-unrelentingly savage “Sword of Mars” (and, to a slightly lesser-extent, chunky, chugging second track “Titan of War”), whose ridiculously heavy riffs and unashamedly hefty hooks lean much more heavily (pun intended) towards the Death Metal side of the spectrum in a way which wouldn’t sound out of place alongside uber-martial metal legionnaires like Bolt Thrower, God Dethroned, and 1914.

To be clear, this doesn’t mean that Warcrab have sacrificed their sludgier sound – the grim ‘n’ grimy “Black Serpent Coils” and fantastic penultimate track “Sourlands Under A Rancid Sun” in particular hit a similarly dank and doomy note as the likes of Wolvhammer (RIP) and Churchburn – it’s just that the best bits of The Howling Silence tend to come when the band err on the more punishing and pulse-pounding side of things.

I won’t say it’s perfect – there’s definitely a sense that some songs stand out more than others, although that’s pretty normal, and I’d argue, possibly controversially, that the sludgy slow-burn of “As the Mourners Turn Away” drags on far longer than it needs to – but it’s easily the band’s best work yet.

And if you don’t believe me just check out the climactic title-track, which not only demonstrates just how well Warcrab are able to intertwine their Sludge and Death Metal influences into a singularly cohesive (and  crushing) whole when they put their minds to it, but also showcases an unexpectedly proggier approach to the group’s songwriting – shifting as it does from brooding melody to bone-grinding groove to moody minimalism to explosive extremity in turn – which promises even bigger and better things in the band’s future.