“We’re going for extremity in any respect prices,” Simon Neil of Biffy Clyro not too long ago advised NME of his long-awaited new enterprise, Empire State Bastard. “Even when it’s not brutality – it’s obtained to be extraordinarily bizarre.”
That is coming from an artist who has spent his whole profession pushing himself into the weirdest corners of rock, straddling the mainstream with arena-sized choruses whereas concurrently taking absolutely the piss with neck-breaking mathy preparations. Neil has all the time darted from one excessive to a different on a competition headline scale, so think about the curiosity when he introduced he’d be shaking off the shackles of the poppier components of rock by launching a grindcore band with Biffy touring guitarist and former Oceansize frontman Mike Vennart.
Accomplished by the mighty Dave Lombardo of Slayer fame destroying the drums and the fierce Naomi Macleod from Bitch Falcon on bass, Empire State Bastard really feel just like the Avengers of cruel rock. From the off with the desert rock speedball of ‘Harvest’, ‘Rivers Of Heresy’ is the wild journey you’ve been ready for. The pure metallic punishment continues on the pummeling screamo of ‘Blusher’ earlier than ‘Moi’ is a twisted tour to the doomy depths and again once more as Neil guarantees: “Persist with me, we’ll get it found out”.
You survive the machine gun assault of ‘Drained, Aye’, the pure kickdrum warfare of ‘Stutter’ and ‘Palms Of Palms’, and also you realise that there’s no likelihood in hell of Matt Cardle masking certainly one of these for the following ‘Music For Mums’ compilation. Properly, except the X Issue champ needs to tackle the sludgy epic of ‘Sons And Daughters’, throwing the finger as much as the person with its howl of “this isn’t the life that you just offered us”. ‘Dusty’ in the meantime, strips issues proper right down to the uncooked, primal necessities with Neil misplaced in a mantra of “in every single place, imagine it, it’s inside your self”.
“I’ll by no means develop outdated in a graveyard,” muses Neil on album spotlight and nearer ‘The Looming’, letting his normal sideways existentialism go for a journey courtesy of a sprawling stoner-meets-prog nightmare soundtrack. It captures the ambition and extremities that make this report such a romp. It’ll be too arduous for many Biffy followers and never pure sufficient for a lot of Slayer trustworthy, but it surely’s its personal splendidly bizarre wee beast. These are the sharper edges that Neil set free on Biffy’s earlier work, however elevated that the pure ultraviolence of Vennart’s songwriting and madcap riffery.
There are a couple of extra left turns from Neil extra on the best way – specifically the long-awaited second album from his wonky synth-pop outfit Marmaduke Duke and long-mooted “mong-aggedon finished venture” Tippie Toes. Extra like, busy Clyro – eh? Sorry. Like Tyler Durden in Battle Membership, Neil seemingly can’t cease organising new cult franchises – and ESB are a greater than welcome bizarre addition to his arsenal.
Particulars
- Launch date: September 1
- Document label: Roadrunner Information
