A Black People : " Dust and Shadows"

I want more death rock. I really do. I wish bands could deliver it to me , but this is where the problem lies. This is largely a very sonic lo-fi punk rock band. The vocals are certainly influenced by death rock, but I am not 100 percent convinced that they are a death rock band. The production is pretty inconsistent as the second song suffers where the opener worked. I like what the vocals do on "Shame" but the guitar is not always working with him. If we think back to what really works with death rock, we know the bass needs to have more of a presence to leave the guitar more room to snake round and get creepy. "Anxiety" is more intangible in it's arrangement.The more lo-fi elements work here to help create the atmosphere and for ma more hypnotic feeling, but this is hit or miss.

They sound more like blown out garage rock that is really dark on "Follow" if some left the Cure playing on a boom box in the next room while they recorded it. The first song that has a shoe gaze feel is the swirling "Hush". I like the guitar on this song more than anything i have heard from these guys yet and this is the least punk moment so far. "Filth" is more in the almost psych garage rock side of things and not as original as the previous since it reminds me more of Blue Cheer. Things do get darker on "Sterilize". This one also has female vocals layered in the background to help add a touch of elegance. The difference between goth which is first off more of the broader blanket and death-rock, is death rock has the elegance it's just the morning after waking up in the gutter with a needle in your arm. I like lyrics referring living in a world of entitlement, which this almost anti-millennial sentiment seems to juxtapose what ever cause they are backing Bandcamp on.

There is something being said about sterilizing humanity on the next song "Solidarity". It is dreamier and the female vocals play a larger role when the take over for the more drug induced male narrative. This is also the second moment on the album where shoe gaze might apply to what is going on here. I like this album, some of the production could have been fine tuned to give a clearer picture of what they were trying to to . I'll round it up to an 8.5 .