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Review |
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Underground but not completely under the radar,
Lavotchkin have hurled their latest EP, Widow Country,
through their studio window into the sonic stream.
And boy do they sound pissed off. From the first
riff to the last rasping scream escaping frontman
Simon Tittley’s vocal chords, anger dripping
from every each note, it would take a certain ignoramus
to read sweetness and light into the Newcastle noiseniks’
dirge. But when your release is produced by Jason
Sanderson (Rolo Tomassi, 65 Days Of Static) and
mastered by Alan Douches (Mastodon, Converge), would
we really expect anything less?
Straight off the bat, a war commences from frontline
track The Pledge; a two minute burst sweating streams
of aggression and negativity. With battle cries
and menacing marching drums executed in the loudest
possible way, this initial assault on the world
around them holds no bars.
Up-tempo - without being in any way, shape or form
upbeat - It’s A Good Day For A Wake communicates
it’s anti-world message with a hook so mesmerizing
it captivates you for the track in its entirety.
Overlaid with yelps and barks and pain, Mr Tittley
and his doom brigade have created something volatile
enough to creep through the airwaves to your frontal
lobes and make you want to smash shit up. Good work
guys.
Issues of teenage suicide are among the topics spewing
from the quintet’s lyrics, namely with their
bash at ‘clumsy’ media reporting in
the shape of The Werther Effect. Lavotchkin’s
icing on their chaotic cake. Deathly barking makes
any sort of vocal emulation nigh on impossible -
unless you happen to be Eva Spence, which I’m
not. Make no mistake this does not take away from
the absolute shit storm that would go down at a
live show; as the EP unfolds, each aggro-anthem
more barbaric sounding than the last, your mind
wanders to the front row and the perilous circle
pits that will chew you up and spit you out.
Irukandji, incidentally a deathly poisonous jellyfish
and And No Hope Did You Bring are all too similar
in their genre-pushing but a touch lack lustre in
comparison to their siblings. Ender and title track
Widow Country finishes off with angsty vocals and
well timed pace changes, culminating the EP on a
positive note.
A ferocious six tracker spiked with nothing over
three and a half minutes. Perhaps not one for the
faint hearted, and definitely not for anyone looking
for something warm and fuzzy to cwtch their ear
lobes. No, Lavotchkin are the anti-pop. The anathema
if you will. And these are their war songs. As guitarist
Martin Downing puts it “Life’s too short
to be sitting at home pissed off at the world, when
you could be channelling that negative energy into
something positive/creative. An exorcism metaphorically
speaking I guess, though a very enjoyable one with
a lot of adventures.”
4/5
Review by Jessica Acreman |
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| Review
Score Code |
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- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
-
What Was That? |
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