Banner Picture by Jeroen Mylle
Oathbreaker’s second full-length, Eros|Anteros, is one of the year’s best hardcore releases, while easily being the most unique. Eros|Anteros claps a meaner thunder than 2011’s Mælstrøm, while upholding that album’s dedication to blending blunt force and intangible elegance. Ten tracks careen from calamity to calm, guarded to vulnerable. Oathbreaker dances on chaos’s edge, reeling in their rage with sharp melody.
Introduction, “(Beeltenis),” fortifies itself with an atmospheric wall that only lightly samples what is to come. “No Rest for the Weary” wastes no time in rising from the fluttering ashes left by “(Beeltenis).” The speed is breakneck but counterbalanced by swirling beauty. “Upheaval” ricochets from beginning to end, triumphantly mounted on punk-soaked riding beats that seize briefly into grim blast beats. “As I Look Into the Abyss” is a spry piece of metallic hardcore, straight from the Converge playbook. Any similarity is brushed aside when the climactic sounds reverberate deep within your chest cavity. “The Abyss Looks Into Me” is, for lack of a better word, quieter, but is also an achingly monumental exercise in emotional torture. “The Abyss Looks Into Me” gasps for air at its midsection as gentle vocals pour over the listener before descending into maddening pain once more.
Like silk aflame, “Condor Tongue” is Oathbreaker at their very best, so much that one can only feel lucky to have been allowed to hear it. Riffs sweep like oil across glass. The drums churn an energy so thick the vocals slash right through them, savage yet sanguine. “Offer Aan De Leegte” is a kindred spirit of “The Abyss Looks Into Me,” a bulky, airy piece that offers room for the listener to agonize along. That agony is melded with the agility of “Condor Tongue” in “Agartha,” a complex endeavor that rises as much as falls. Penultimate tracks “Nomads” thrashes from one place to the next, shredding its way to being of the funner moments Eros|Anteros offers. “Clair Obscur” is a literal expanse of mood and distance, at times bordering on post-punk akin to Pornography-era The Cure. A thought-provoking piece, “Clair Obscur” is rife with gloom and fragility, though never once shows any sign of breaking. In fact, it only reinforces the fact that this is Oathbreaker’s best work yet.
Eros|Anteros is available now from label Deathwish Inc., in addition to being at your local record store.
New Comments