LAVA LAND

Time to look into a pretty obscure album I found through Youtube recommendations, drawing me in with its oddly enticing cover art. The album itself is some softer edged math rock, still with mind bending time signature changes at an almost constant rate, but incorporating more of the post hardcore side of it, particularly midwest emo, with a lot of tonal similarities to bands such as Sunny Day Real Estate. The album is very short, only being a 24 minute EP., but it's definitely packed with high quality moments, and would definitely be an album I'd recommend to newcomers of the genre, both for the way it displays the more complex side of it, and how it remains more accessible, both with the lack of abrasive qualities, and its short length.

This said, I do find that the album on the whole definitely has some issues in terms of being entirely memorable, as it tends to stick to one tone, being quite optimistic and energetic with a hint of melancholy, and then never really changes all that much. What ends up happening is it creates an album that while good all the way through, rarely ever reaches any kind of amazing peak, and making its brevity a major asset, preventing anything from becoming tedious. Bug Stomp already jumps straight into the thick of it, with a few slow chords before bursting with energy, moving between a central riff and insane instrumental passages, having great variety to stop it from getting dull. Caramel is my personal favourite track here, not just for the memorability of it, but for its difference in sound, incorporating some light djent elements into the mix in a way that never feels overbearing, still sticking strongly to the core identity of the album, but with a slightly harder edge at points, sounding like Animals As Leaders at points. The remaining tracks all have very similar structure to them, with a multitude of layered, complex rhythms and then repeating these a few times in order to allow the listener more of a chance to wrap their head around everything. This, while formulaic, works well for the sole reason that the band is clearly excellent at what they do,managing to at the very least, make each moment extremely impressive, at times lovely to listen to, especially the amazing drumming.

On the whole, this is a pretty decent album that I definitely will recommend to people wanting to get into math rock, as I find it to be more accessible in a multitude of ways, at worst being inoffensive, at best being amazing. I do wish that this band has stuck around for longer, because I could have seen them making some absolutely incredible music down the line, but as it stands this EP, while not essential, is definitely worth a few listens, and is a great starting point in the genre.

Best songs: Caramel

Weakest songs: Anthropology Anthology

Verdict: A fun little math rock album that while never outright bad, does tend to become a bit samey in some sections, due to the extremely similar sense of mood employed throughout. The technical aspect of things shows that this band was seriously talented. The short length of it works well, as the album is consistently enjoyable and doesn't hit the point where it becomes boring.