The way “Someone’s Got It In For Me,” from Denmark’s Lower begins, you could be forgiven for expecting a very different song from the one that emerges. The first half of a two-song seven-inch, “Someone” is heralded by a squall of feedback, leading the listener into expecting something decidedly blackened, and truthfully the band embraces something at least a little necro, blasting the high-hat and washing out the guitars. But once its melodic bass figure kicks in, the song proceeds into the post-punk (“downer punk” according to their last.fm) of country- and occasionally tour-mates Iceage, all snarled, sneering vocals, repetitively pounding drums and biting dissonance.
The first track continues in this vein, sounding like Joy Division soundtracking an Italian western, or maybe a giallo horror film. It doesn’t do a lot more than this, but it doesn’t have to, as it finds a simple groove and sticks to it. The band even adds a little banjo overtop for good measure.
“But There Has To Be More” fills out the release with slightly different take on the pattern established before, only pushing it into the red. Opening on a ringing bell, the wordless chorus bathes in dissonance and brutal downbeats, and in the verses vocalist Adrian Toubros’s disaffected moan burns into a shriek. Like “Someone,” it has a cyclical feel, circling from verse into chorus and back again, ad infinitum, tom-drum beats looping over themselves as guitars swirl.
As compared to Walk on Heads, their first EP, Someone’s Got It In For Me b/w But There Has to Be More feels more deliberate, less punk than industrial, even though all of those songs originated on the same demo tape. But if this is where they’re headed, I’m excited for some really new material. Though if these songs are any indication, I’ll have no idea what that will look like.
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