I’ve got this game I like to play when a new album by a band with an unreadable logo turns up; I go look them up on Wikipedia and see if the ‘former members’ list is longer than the ‘current members’ list. The rule of thumb seems to be: the bigger the former in comparison to the latter, the more ridiculously angry the band’s music will be. If that holds true, Frailty by The Banner should be one of the most ludicrously aggressive albums ever made.
And, after the introductory methadone-blues dirge of the charming “Welcome Fuckers”, I am proved pretty much correct. “The Wolf”, Frailty’s first proper track, slinks out of its lair at a sludgy pace, with saturated drums and guitars as thick as your thigh … and then leaps quick-smart for your throat and locks its jaws in place. The Banner have arrived, so keep a tight grip on your soul.
Of course, if I’d have let myself take a look at Frailty’s tracklisting, it would have spoiled all the suspense; when you call your songs names like “Leechbath”, “On Hooks”, “Funerals” and “Ratflesh”, you expect your audience to know what they’re in for. Fortunately, The Banner have their own sonic stamp to burn into the increasingly flabby flesh of metalcore. Be warned, however; it doesn’t make for a particularly melodic listening experience.
Frailty is defined by saturation; all the sounds have been cranked up as far as the recording will permit and then just that little bit beyond, resulting in that pulsing suck and whoosh of noise as the compression tries to cope with thrash-splash cymbal wash and machine-gun snare bursts, or the combined onslaught of bass and over-muscled guitar hammering out a quarter-pace beatdown over a distant background of feedback. The Banner sound about as ominous as an oncoming squadron of tanks – and just as likely to crush you completely.
Lyrically, The Banner’s frontman Joey Southside delivers a variant of the traditional NYHC personal-demon-wrestling poetry in screeches and slightly gargled howls; much like the instruments of his bandmates, his imagery is turned up to eleven and beyond by comparison to that of his peers. Frailty is everything that brutal hate-fuelled hardcore usually is, but more so. Heavier, faster (sometimes), more bitter, more fucked up and furious, utterly uncompromising.
As an exploration of extremes – sonic and lyrical – Frailty is a laudable work; the inevitable consequence is that all but the most headstrong and adventurous listener will probably baulk before getting halfway through. It’s as much like wrestling as listening, to be honest; there’s genuine physical effort involved as you fight away the suffocating sense of unleashed primal force.
But if you can stomach The Banner’s blood-sweat-and-tears aesthetic, you’ll hear some genuinely striking progressive takes on the metalcore format; here’s a band trying to escape from the restricting confines of a genre and rip their way through into a clear space of their own. Listen closely - but don’t stand in their way.
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Posted in Music reviews |
Tags: death, Frailty, hardcore, metal, metalcore, NYHC, The Banner
