BAPTISTS ARE BLESSEDLY LOUD
The third album from Vancouver hardcore/metal crew Baptists came out Friday. Released on Southern Lord, Beacon of Faith is the follow up to 2014’s acclaimed Bloodmines and builds on the promise of the band’s 2012 debut Bushcraft.
As the new wave of Vancouver hardcore/ heavy metal continues to develop a global brand, bands like Baptists are leading the way with strong messages about the cost we all pay in a system rife with social, political, economic and other inequality.
Here are five things to know about Beacon of Faith:
1.
It’s loud
Yes, this is a loud band on album. So are a lot of bands. But the beauty of what came out of the recording at Salem, Mass., studio Godcity with Kurt Ballou and subsequent mastering by Brad Boatright at Portland’s Audiosiege is an absolutely huge sound. The drums on the first single Capsule will drive home to listeners how many layers of loud have been woven together.
2.
It’s concise
Unlike their contemporaries, many of whom choose long-toreally-long builds in their songs, Andrew Drury, Danny Marshall, Shawn Hawryluk and Nick Yacyshyn start at full speed and thrash through track after track with lean and mean assault. Of the 13 tunes on the album, eight clock in at under two and half minutes. Then there is the nearly seven-minute-long Eulogy Template tossed in to let fans appreciate just how crusty this crew can get when it wants to.
3.
Bevel Down
Nearly at the end of the thrashing this album gives your ears comes this song that has a hook that wouldn’t sound out of place on an Enter Shikari album with its melody line and shredded vocal chorus break. Not everything on the album is fury and rage on one setting.
4.
Andrew Drury
The singer of the group deserves a big nod for his rising above the noise of it all. His vocal style is right in the middle of the most angst-ridden hardcore punk howler and a true metal angry Muppet growl. It comes through over a racket that many singers wouldn’t be able to eclipse.
5.
Green vinyl
On its Facebook page, the band has posted that “Southern Lord and Green Hell-Records are so sick, they’re going green.” What that means is that there is a green — and I’m talking really deep Swamp Thing slime green — vinyl release of the album. Cool. Also being listened to this week:
TRACYANNE & DANNY: TRACYANNE & DANNY (MERGE)
The 10-tune debut from the duo of former Camera Obscura singer Tracyanne Campbell and Bristol’s Danny Coughlan is right in line with many great Scottish pop acts. The songs have country tinges, crooner pop hooks and are loaded with melancholy. Above it all, it’s just so incredibly clean sounding. How to make something that seems so completely ’60s without being retro is impressive enough in itself. This will twang it’s way into your faves if you already have a penchant for music such as She & Him.
KLAUS SCHULZE: SILHOUETTES (OBLIVION/SPV)
Legendary German avantrocker and electronic music progenitor Schulze is estimated to have recorded on somewhere between 200 and 500 albums. The music he’s crafted as a leader of session players has always tended toward the outside realms of the avant-rock scene and oftentimes veered into ambient soundtracks. As Schulze explains, in the wake of his 70th birthday and suffering from some health problems, he was feeling reflective and meditative. That perfectly describes the almost symphonic builds in songs such as the 22-minute-long Der lange Blick zuruck or the 15-minute title track. This is contemplative for sure, and lovely.
JOHN MAUS: ADDENDUM (RIBBON)
American composer Maus has come a long way from his vintage synth, lo-fi sounds using cassette multi-track recorders. Which isn’t to say that his sound isn’t still characterized by spartan, minimalist instrumentation and apocalyptic themes. He’s just moved into better quality recording such as what gave 2017’s Screen Memories such solid press. In fact, many of the tracks on Addendum are leftovers from those sessions, although which of the dozen tunes isn’t clear. Given his PhD in philosophy and general interest in outsider themes, his music can sometimes seem a bit bogged down with goth habits. But then you listen to the lyrics to dumpster Baby — “Take the baby to the dump/You take that baby to the dump/dumpster Baby/Plutonium babies” — and it’s hard not to notice the tongue planted firmly in cheek.