Hello everyone. Two blogs again? God save us all. Send music shit to [ fosterhildingmusic@gmail.com ] or DM me on Instagram.
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| photos stolen from band's Instagram. |
I think it took me a very long time to come around to silk. Being so deep in the BLOUSE hole, I couldn't not like them, but it still took me a while to get there. I think I had the same problem for a moment with OLTH--not used to the highest pitched screams possible. Now, having been steeped in the emo shit deeper than I'm willing to admit, I can confidently say I was wrong. A Fenestrated Fantasy is powerful, these static guitars holding onto every word as if existence itself depended on it, as if without the toy snare and blasting cymbals that frame its portrait, all would be lost and unrecoverable.
Traits gallops along in stuffy guitars and trampling drum clicks, these whining calls predicting an architecture of falling riffs and smattering blasts. Vocals climb between scratchy, painful lows, ear-piercing screeches, and these coveted moments of blissful melody. It is in these moments that silk glows and melts through their impenetrable exterior into intentionality, grace, and a shimmering blindness of both emotional and sonic integrity.
I Can't Remember the Last Time I got a Tetanus Shot. By this point in my relisten, I had to check a hotstuff productions video to see if they had a bassist (they don't). Everything is mixed so well and so incredibly woven together that I could've sworn there was a bass. It's even more impressive when you factor in that they only have one guitarist. The production on this is deceivingly brilliant--but back to the song itself. I absolutely adore these spoken word parts. They just itch that 90s post-hardcore part of my brain. This little moment is destroyed by the weight of a thousand crashing suns in this enormous burst of energy, vocals chanting as low as they can, cracking between each syllable like a sobbing teen struggling to breathe.
Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time's intro is simply fucking sick. Toms bubble in and out of discernibility as guitars like woven fabric spread themselves across a scenic destruction. Smothered vocal melodies drown in distortion behind a wall of violence like an anxious sibling. We slow down enough to catch our breath, but that is only momentary, and we gradually return to pace as bashed accents bolt in sporadic directions beneath steady cymbals.
Endives has to be a reference to Endive, right? Unless it's not... But holy shit is this beautiful. A groping snare, always at the ready for onslaught, betrays contemplative riffs and layers of harmonizing vocals. Everyone catches up with the drums, though, in this insanely heavy yet simple groove that is so much cooler the more you listen. Chords change on a microscopic level, yet every little alteration is felt. This breakdown right in the middle is killer, too, just beating and beating and beating itself into your ears like a masochistic hammer/nail. When we return to beauty, it's warranted, an award for our determination despite desperation.
Amber Welts feels dark, but not like some dungeon, cave, doom metal bullshit. It feels like that darkness you feel in the company of others. It's the embodiment of that pit in your stomach, walking a crowded hallway. It's the feeling of being alone in a crowded room, and choosing solitude when it's a choice. "If I had stronger shoulders / I'd pull the weight for you / But I can barely stand up on my own" are some of my favorite lines. I cannot get over how cool these guitar riffs are. In every single song, there's an addictive quality in them, and the drums just fit perfectly against their ridges. They're two pieces together, forced to loneliness like twin test subjects. In silk, there's solidarity in solitude.
Blue Heron provides a moment of tranquility, a hand extended to us in these silk strings (I know). These beat switch ups are so sick and incredibly well done. Usually blast beats feel slightly off, or just fall out of line, but that's never the case here. Just fucking surgical and passionate.
Turn Reeds into Rifles rifles (lol) through its previously introduced ruminations as any good closer should. Vocals yearn, buried and despaired without repair against monstrosities of sound that never let up. This downbeat hi-hat jam that happens maybe twice in the second blast beat section is one of my favorite moments in this song. Bring back long screamo songs (four minutes isn't long, but compared to everything else coming out...).
I can confidently say that this was one of the most surprising releases for me. I went into this thinking I would give it a disturbingly low rating, but this has become one of my favorite albums of the year. If you haven't checked this out yet, do it. It's worth it to hear every string, melody, and beat collide in moments of absolute terror and heartbreak.
9.5/10
Stream A Fenestrated Fantasy.
-Foster
See silk live with closer, ostraca, Eyelet, Trophy Hunt, and capsuleofyou at The Meadows on December 28th.
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