Hello, still working through this backlog. Thankfully these are albums and projects that I've very much enjoyed, this one especially. Send music shit to [ fosterhildingmusic@gmail.com ] or DM me on Instagram.
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| photos courtesy of Gxllium. |
Gxllium has quickly skyrocketed to one of my favorite extreme emo (if you can even call them that) bands, not only in the current Southern California scene, but of all time. Blistering breakdowns and ironic callouts between unexpectedly moving passages with bold-faced sincerity fill their newest EP, Breakup Songs. Before we get into the songs themselves, I want to take a moment to try and capture how incredible the production is on this... It's raw, emotional, and minimalist without chipping away at their massive, noise-drenched sound.
Don't Fuck With Cats fucks you immediately, coming out of goofy dance cat sampling into overblown chaos, Frankie's voice conjuring something hateful and disgusting in each of Tanner's indecisive kick pulses. It's drenched in feedback, crackling at its own edges and unable to settle, like a caged animal forced into sonic submission. Regardless, Gxllium does not compromise.
Narc Needs Narcan bleeds from a soberingly realistic, and all-too-familiar broadcast on the frequency of fentanyl overdoses into Greg and Tanner's pattering emotional tango. What comes next is bleakness in black metal fashion, then of course their chugging breakdowns filled with Frankie's playful bass fuckery tucked away into one ear. Every song moves to and from every part with ridiculously adept continuity and masterful planning, packed with a punch for every wandering second and never granting listeners a single silent second.
Chick Corea is only screaming. Greg's playing here is fucking nuts. Between his machine gun chugging and spiraling passages like arachnid architecture, it just floors me every time. Frankie's "What did you say you fucking...?" is an unmatched transition into probably the most smack-you-in-the-face breakdown of the year, and of years I can remember. Tanner also manages to keep time over painfully long gaps of stillness, his china the only guide-rope in our descent to depravity.
Jeff's Song's bipolar dilemma of video game guitars and smacking violence pulls us into a thudding refrain of stuttering bass and kick and itching guitars. An exercise in chaos, it ends in blast beat heaven--of course.
Dat One starts in the most unexpected of places--funky bass and Bach-esque guitars trip down steps into an almost Halloween-soundtrack trance. It's a throbbing carousel of sharp noise giving just enough space for Frankie's, "I never thought I'd find love on an empty wallet," accompanied only by his rhinoceros bass and Tanner's minimal drums. What comes next is an almost Gojira-esque homage to heaviness itself, Greg's scraping a painful segue into doom.
Axel Peart is my favorite song of the year, hands down. It takes a sudden, much welcomed shift from ironic samples and callouts into a vengeful cry aimed at a negligent past. What begins in jumping, mathcore porn and restless feedbacking motion with every guitar piling onto one another, becomes a muted shadow of the band. They're far away, taking a breath before their final push, a last resort attack outlined by miserable revenge. Sectioned off by Greg's guttural feedback and driven by a crying, melodic wish for the future, this next part is addictive. I come back just to hear this, with Frankie's voice buried deep beneath the wreckage and Tanner's drums overtaking my ears like a pandemic. It ends in a hateful prayer, surrounded by voices of our own, and those words we one day wish we could somehow take back.
I don't have much more to say about this EP other than listen to it. I don't give out 10s lightly, but I feel 100% confident in this being a 10. It's new, scraping past the walls of any genre's preconceived notions, masterfully arranged, and incredibly thick, textured, and disgusting. It's perfect.
10/10
Stream Breakup Songs.
-Foster
See Gxllium on tour this December.
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