Pig Eyes : S/t

Seems to be band's first proper full length. Caught my interest as it's a Swedish post-punk project that features members of In Solitude. It is more up beat and user friendly than I thought it would be going into this. While I have read reviews slagging the band for wearing their influences on their sleeves, I can't really hear that. In fact they are a welcome relief from the flood of post-punk bands just wanting to Joy Division, which is my main gripe about the way this movement is going.

The album is plenty dark enough. The bass tone is gnarly and is one of the main contributing factors to it's shadow side. It opens with a fuzzy and taunt take on modern punk. The vocals are screamed in rather typical faux British . There are some almost doomy riffs lurking around like troll under the bridges in this song. The lyrics take some effort to make out, there is something about revolution in there, so I suspect anti-establishment and disillusionment seem to be the topic.

The album feels less punk as it takes you deeper into their cave. The jangle of the guitar in "Black Path, Clear Spot" wants to make it know that it's not metal. The vocals take a more melodic moan to them and finds us closer to goth here. The guitar tone is really chilling here. The woobly effects are right where they need to be.

The guitar tightens up on "Up the River" to create a very Fugazi like groove. The bass and drums sync up right where they need to be to give the song the push it needs. At seven minutes this instrumental is doing something right to keep me engaged. Though I prefer songs like "Silver Dad", where the crazed spewing of the vocalist adds a chaotic narrative. As the song builds it sounds he is having a nervous break down.

On "Warlord" it sounds like the band recycles one of the riff's from "Sister". Its a good song but the fact that element figures in so heavily is somewhat a distraction.  The "Edge of Seventeen" feel makes this one of the most straight up rock n roll songs on the album. The album closes with the pt. 2 of "Up the River". This is also the first song that bears any likeness to Joy Division. Some of this is in the monotone drone of the vocals. The same doomish vibe coats this song.The drums take a lingers pulse rather than establish more of a beat as the song hypnotically drives the point home.
Not what I expected this to be but an album that is going to get a lot of repeat listens as it is very dark and encompasses most of the elements I like for in this type of thing even if some of the rock n roll elements can at times be heavy handed.I'll round this album up to a nine point five as every other element aside from that recycled riff should grow on me. As for fans of In Solitude, this is more along the lines of "Sister" than their more Merciful Fate slanted days.

Holograms : "Forever"

I've been hunting down this album the Stockholm based punk band since it's release, even contacting their manager who is vacationing in Australia. This release sees, the punk roots intact , but the post- label is firmly in place as it has a dark spacious not confined by the raw explosion punk is normally limited to. This is displayed out the gate with the opener "Sacred State".

Things continue to drift into darker waters as the album progresses , it finds as much common ground with Joy Division and New Model Army as it does the likes of Iceage. The Iceage comparison comes as there is not the hugest classic punk influence, unless we are talking about the middle ground when bands like Suicide and Joy Division were thought of as punk.The songwriting here has much more depth and thought behind it than what you would typically think of as punk. I would even go as far as to say they are even a step ahead of other  northern euro-punkers like Iceage when it comes to the dynamic range of their song writing.The use of Keyboards on this albums adds to this fact.

"Meditations" starts pretty straight forward high tension fashion as a lot of this sort of post-punk coming out and then gets a bigger sounding hook on the chorus, but is still coming from the same zip -code as Bellicose Minds. In fact I think this band bridges the gap between bands like Bellicose Minds and bands like Lower and Iceage. They stay the course , with bass driven march on"Attestupa", the reverbed guitar lines wander around the bass, while the interplay still makes it dancey enough for goth night.

The attention to detail when it comes to making catchy songs remains intact on the more synth dominated "Luminous" the guitar line almost strays into death rock, if he had more Bela Lugosi rather than the snotty punk baritone croon he uses for most of the album, "Rush" takes things back into the tense Joy Division like propulsion. This one didn't grab much as much as the rest of the album has so far , but it grew on me by the songs end as it coalesces into more of a hooky build.

You could almost call "Wolves" a slow song , if compared with the pace the band has kept most of the album, but not a ballad by any means it falls on the more deliberate end of mid tempo. There are some really raw scraping guitar sounds on this one and it builds into loose sonic deconstruction. The more traditionally goth "Laughter Breaks the Silence" still keeps things pretty punk in the bat cave. The song drives harder than even Ian Curtis and the boys. 

At almost six minutes " A Blaze on the Hillside" is the albums longest track. A minute and a half in it breaks down from it's straight ahead punk charge , it really only breathes on the punk tom pulses, and isn't a bad song it is the most sonically and dynamically flat , with the guitar melody that surfaces halway through as the most interesting part.

"Lay us Down " closes out the album, his voice takes on a more melodic quality here and comes the closest to more thought and melody being put into his vocal approach and marks the singers high point of the album and the songs brings the album to a close with a more melodic swell. I'll go ahead and round this album up to a 10 as "A Blaze on the Hillside" is the only tune that seemed a little redundant, but I will give it the benefit of the doubt that it will grow on me.