I missed a day last weekend. Please don't crucify me, guys. Anyway, as always, send your music shit over to [ fosterhildingmusic@gmail.com ] or DM me on Instagram.
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| photos stolen from the internet. |
This is an old one I've been meaning to do for forever. Fucking crushing, beautiful, and an intense blend of sprawling, sad emo and cutting metalcore, sinema's debut album, Fear of the Fall, is their best release yet. It is so diverse and full of incredibly heavy musicianship between these simply gorgeous refrains of arpeggiated grace.
01 is both the shortest and most stripped down song. It introduces us to their own personal brand of nostalgic emo, complete with Hunter and Caleb's pitch perfect sing song vocal lines that just descend like feathers upon swooping layers of rattling acoustic guitars. "Whatever you tell yourself to feel better" hits like a ghost train with these spoken-to-sung harmonies. It's the perfect introduction into their imminent path to sonic destruction.
On a Broken Edge slides between screeching minor seconds and Mason's slapping snare. It also exemplifies the only issue I have with this album: the production. It's really only here that there's any issue, the acoustic opener loud and balanced only to drop off for the rest of album. The mastering doesn't match up. Regardless, holy shit is this song a doozy. Between Mason and Caleb's powerviolence riffage and chugging, these splintered, searing vocals intertwine in harmony and descend into growls. The bridge, complete with plastic chords, is just ever so sweet, and the breakdown that follows only grows in intensity--Hunter (I think) belting into new heights that are insanely impressive.
Tears on the Moon sprays across our ears in neon jittering, only to explode into driving chugs and J-rock, single note guitar melodies. Hunter's vocal bend from screaming to yearning is painful and perfectly executed. The of this track seems fitting, their low bubbling guitars like moonwalking after a turbulent journey through blast beating galaxies. Mason and Caleb's guitars battles for guitar solo supremacy, back and forth, reaching for the stars.
02 is really an extension of the previous track, flooded with a mysterious gloom and drowned by these western-ish guitar melodies. When that djenty B section kicks in, it's fucking gravitational. We circle back to our blissful guitars, an oasis only penetrated by these dinosaur vocals--just absolutely evil sounding voices that only increase in frequency from here on it.
Weather to Believe (sic) feels more like standard metal than anything in its grasping introduction before their return to roots. Hunter and Caleb's vocals compete from different spheres for the same common goal: to do what they can to save us... All these clean guitar passages feel so melting and low, muffled by some emotive force. Mason's toms drag us through the thunder of their thudding before one of my favorite moments on the album, complete with their signature full band chuggings and call and response vocals.
Don't Just Stand There dives fully into heavy depravity, these dissonant riffs crawling inside a primal beat not dictated by four's divisions. It wouldn't be a sinema song without melody-driven, ballad-esque choruses, all in the cadence of wishing for the sun to fall away. The double kick breakdown fucks so hard, panic chords lining its edges like the spined back of an eldritch creature. The juxtaposition of, "Don't just stand there" over engine revving, disgusting-ass metalcore riffs, is just incredible cool. Not much else to say about it than that.
I Hold On Twice chirps away in birdlike fashion, its guitars in a less energetic, more melancholy spout. A piano tiptoes its way around the next part like some lullaby battling against rage. sinema's most beautiful moments just happen to be the most subtle, but nonetheless aching with some unspeakable regret.
At Least, Be Human takes us out of our fairytale trance and back into metal guitar harmonies and a cricketing drum beat. Then, out of nowhere, comes a chorus-drenched guitar ripped straight from the 90s. This breakdown-ish jam we get with a fluttering kick is incredibly sick. I wouldn't say it's the perfect ending, but the energy is there and never ending. In its final moments, we hear a return to these gorgeous vocal harmonies that fade out into the ether.
Deceivingly heavy and so intentionally composed, Fear of the Fall is one of my top releases of the year, musically. It is just so dense and insanely diverse for such a niche genre, I'm always blown away just listening to it. Incredible stuff. Thanks for listening, everyone.
9/10
Stream Fear of the Fall.
-Foster
See sinema live OLTH, Gxllium, bulletsbetweentongues, and Empty Shell Casing at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios on December 6th.
Also see them live with In Loving Memory..., OLTH, Gxllium, bulletsbetweentongues, and Empty Shell Casing at Empire on December 8th.
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