I should probably make it clear that I come to Tail Swallower And Dove with baggage, but it’s positive baggage; I saw These Arms Are Snakes supporting Pelican about a year ago and had a real road-to-Damascus moment, because they were simply stunning. So, high hopes – and their latest album is no disappointment.
That said, These Arms Are Snakes are a very different proposition on record. The huge walls of sound are still there, but there’s much more definition, every sound standing clear and distinct like the perfectly-cut blocks of an Inca fortress, fitting so close you could barely slip a razorblade between them, standing like some solid testament to forgotten modes of architecture. You could probably lump Tail Swallower And Dove in the post-metal bracket without too much trouble, but it would be a massive over-simplification; it’s an album that sprawls over genre boundaries with a certain sullen malice, encroaching on other territories as it sees fit.
Comparisons are no easy way out, either. You could point to the curves and angles of the riffs and call These Arms Are Snakes out as a progressive outfit, or use the heavy bludgeon of “Red Line Season” as clear evidence of a distant stoner heritage. But then there’s the architecture and brooding rage of post-hardcore waiting in the wings to shove you aside at an opportune moment, and the droning synth textures that nod knowingly at the smarter end of industrial. Throw in vocals that sound like some hybrid of Ian Mackaye and Tommy Victor, and Tail Swallower And Dove starts shaping up as a distillation of a vast collection of disparate influences.
Best of all, every song sounds different, while still retaining a sonic stamp that is theirs alone. If there’s one unifying aesthetic across the whole of Tail Swallower And Dove, then it’s surely a moody dystopic surrealism; Steve Snere’s vocals are inscrutable, loaded with dark symbolism and pregnant with carefully contained aggression, and while I’d hesitate to guess exactly what he’s on about, the sense that he’s on about something is inescapable. These Arms Are Snakes seem to have the internal mythology that I find marks many of my favourite bands; a sense that they’re discussing things that contribute to some coherent grand vision of the way things are, and that if you only had the key to the code you could unlock some potent mysteries and discover the world anew. Whether you’d be happier for that discovery is an open question, of course, but sometimes seeking knowledge is its own reward.
Of course, there’s no obligation to approach Tail Swallower And Dove (or indeed any album at all) as a sort of sonic sudoku; that’s just a bad habit of mine, I guess. You can just as easily step inside and get yourself lost in the post-apocalyptic landscapes conjured up on a framework of subtle yet powerful drumming, with guitars and synthesizers blending and splitting apart, sometimes almost indistinguishable. Occasionally you’ll wander into a riff that just blows you away with its simplicity, like the buzzing bass synth of “Lucifer” or the creeping threat of “Ethric Double”, or alternatively find yourself trapped in a claustrophobic cage of sound like the arpeggios and sotto voce chants of “Long and Lonely Step” or the surprising yet vicious delicacy of album closer “Briggs”.
Tail Swallower And Dove is definitely a rewarding journey, but it’s one for the headstrong only – These Arms Are Snakes make no concessions to accessibility, and while they’re nowhere near as wilfully obtuse and abstract as some other bands one could mention, they’re a challenging band making challenging music. Take the test; it’s well worth the time.
Related articles:
Posted in Music reviews | No Comments »
Tags: post-hardcore, post-metal, progressive, punk, Tail Swallower And Dove, These Arms Are Snakes
