Calliope Music Review of the Week
Sprain - The Lamb as Effigy
Bloodthirsty Theatrics Embody the Brutalism of Insecurity
Meshes of wrenching electric guitar, battling drum sets, screeching electronics, and striking string sections model blistering passages of strafing noise. The vicious clashing of crashing cymbals and charging guitar is juxtaposed with wavering developments of reverberated organ and ravishing orchestral segments. All of the while, lead vocalist, Alex Kent delivers a burning performance of wicked cries and seething flamboyancy.
When concepts align, The Lamb as Effigy smolders as a cataclysmic reach towards higher power. Destructive resonations, suspenseful arrangements, and sweltering fervor grind the mind and heart down to its simplest contents. Moments such as the building organ on 'Margin for Error' and the gut wrenching bass line on 'Man Proposes, God Disposes' are unrelenting in their unalloyed expression and monstrous catharsis.
Where there are many moments containing such smashing purgation, there are many times the concepts slip off, or wilt away entirely. The inexorable noise, overly extended progressions, and often abstract focus contradict the nuance of the 96 minute double album. With so many different tones and varied imagery the project gets lost within its own Avant-garde nature, often failing to construct its own foundations for tune and structure.
Lyrically, Kent explores quite substantial themes of self-loathing, primal humanness, and spiritual expulsion. Where exquisite pictorials and eclectic wordplay enhance dramatic sequences, a brutal perversion and unwieldly vocal tone damage strong developments. Overall, Kent and the band present a nihilistic irony, at times beautifully capturing the confusion and anger of finding meaning, yet at other times settling on blunt perversions that undermine the nuance of such subjects.
Although much of the record bestows an ugly pietism, it is an all too human and real response. The experimentalism of the project reflects a human story of finding and losing meaning. It is a hideous journey, that can even hurt to listen to at times with its squealing dramatism and exaggerated hypocrisy. But in the end, it is a stunning journey, awe-inspiring in its imposing environments and physical incarnation of equally grand emotive deliverance.
Best Tracks: Man Proposes, God Disposes -- Reiterations -- Privilege of Being -- Margin for Error -- The Commercial Nude
Comments
Post a Comment