Glitterer
Rationale
Seeing how they struggle to make an album that cracks 25 minutes, and they’re all much of a muchness anyway, you might expect Glitterer to be churning out a lot more of them. Then again, a new album every two or three years sounds about right for a project whose defining characteristic is how set in its ways it is. Maybe that comes from the constant clamouring for a Title Fight reunion that’s kept Ned Russin seeking some consistent normalcy; maybe it’s how Glitterer’s indie-rock has a firm cap on how pliable it can be that was sealed a long time ago. Either way, a new album presents little incentive to expect some grand shake-up. Rationale is as much in the default Glitterer mode as anything that came before, with mingled admiration for sticking to their guns for this long, and exasperation that it still isn’t impressing all that much.
Now to be fair, Rationale does have a couple of distinctions working in its favour. For one, it contains Glitterer’s longest song to date in Half Truth, breaching an eye-watering two minutes and 53 seconds (whoa there, Dream Theater!). More seriously, however, is how the framed focus as a full band seems to have smoothed out some edges, particularly in regards to synths that are now more seamlessly integrated. And they do sound good for the most part, rippling out on Plastic and Big Winner, and fully taking over on Can’t Feel Anything with its gauzy clarity. And for an act holding onto the fringes of shoegaze, that kind of retooling would be pretty useful…if it felt as though it amounted to anything.
That’s really the crux of Rationale’s shortcomings, and really Glitterer’s in general—when all of their songs are so truncated with minimal ideas in place, it’s hardly conducive to a satisfying listen. The fact it refuses to stick is inevitable when, outside of a pleasant jangle on Just A Piece that’s still more memorable for its concept than its execution, there’s no movement taking place. There probably is song structure, but you’re not picking up on it too easily with the amount of roadblocks Glitterer deliberately seem to lay out, in the omnipresent indie-grunge style that such tight confines make all the less gratifying, and Russin’s unvarnished, quasi-droning vocals that knock the pacing back even more. It doesn’t outstay its welcome, per se, but 20-ish minutes should not be the timeframe in which you’re getting bored by an album.
The fact that this isn’t a new problem for Glitterer and they’ve been pulled up on it before only proceeds to distance Rationale even further. It’s such a baked-in problem, too, fundamental to this act that keeps their leash so short. But apparently the work gone into synth utility—an issue that was never all that pressing, for the record—just takes precedence over fundamental shortcomings. Far be it to chide Russin for going his own way (he’s certainly not being swayed by what anyone else wants), but maybe there’s more than one reason why calls to bring Title Fight back haven’t been slaked by Glitterer. Just sayin’.
For fans of: Fiddlehead, Anxious, Turnover
‘Rationale’ by Glitterer is released on 23rd February on Epitaph Records.
Paledusk
PALEHELL
Do the Japanese know they can make, like…normal music? Especially in metal, there’s some obsession with endless genre clashes in a vainglorious attempt to one-up everyone and everything else, often to loud, searingly colourful but sometimes entertaining results. However, there’s no sustainability in that model, a fact that Paledusk seem to take immense glee in ignoring. Evidently, their thrills come from the game instead of the prize, an admirable prospect when you aren’t subjecting others to ADD-core that views cohesion as a cursory bonus.
PALEHELL, then, is a mess of an EP, completely and knowingly. Half-ideas and tossed-together concepts find themselves stitched among or on top of maximalist metalcore du jour, blocking out even the faintest hope for negative space to let anything breathe. That kind of titanic, oppressively dense metalcore can be exhausting at the best of times, but Paledusk’s increasingly nonsensical pile-ups slot it into straight overwhelming territory. Sensory overload reaches its apex on RUMBLE, in which hyperpop knocks into an Arabian interlude with drill production before a saxophone trill over an industrial metalcore backdrop, and does any of this sound even remotely pleasant? Nothing connects, or feels as though it’s there to substantiate anything else. It’s there for the sake of obtuseness, replicated on the jammed-in ‘50s rock ‘n’ roll guitar and drumming that sounds legitimately off-rhythm on I’m ready to die for my friends, or the plethora of bubbles and horse neighs that overpower SUPER PALE HORSE, a song that would be fairly forgettable without its own obnoxiousness.
All the while, there may be something at the centre with a chance of working. When all the extraneous shit is removed, Paledusk are a competent-to-good metalcore band, albeit in a capacity that shines brightest on NO! and TRANQUILO!, neither of which can make it to even two minutes. Perhaps that’s appropriate for a band that operates in pieces at a time, as hooks will be individually empowered by sweeping scale and gang vocals (they’re actually rather good at capturing that size), only to feel totally incongruous with what they’re pitted against. The curiosity factor will pull you in, more often than not, Paledusk are just as adept at kicking you right back out again, basically without fail.
It isn’t a sound that particularly benefits from being written about; it does need to be heard to fully comprehend the unscrupulousness of it all. There are also guest appearances and the lyrics and numerous vocal styles to contend with, but none of that really matters when the core idea can barely make sense. What makes it worse is how it’s not far enough from established ground to properly class as ‘experimental’; extrapolate metalcore trends far enough, and you’d end up here anyway. You’ve likely gone too far if you do, of which Paledusk are living, screeching, writhing proof. The best part comes when it’s over.
For fans of: Crossfaith, Silhouette From The Skylit, having a migraine
‘PALEHELL’ by Paledusk is out now on Sharptone Records.
Shoreline
To Figure Out
There’s something about Shoreline’s new album that just feels…odd. The direction doesn’t, as a band who’ve always sought the bring alt- and indie-punk to its poppiest, most ‘millennial emo’ boil, nor does the fact that this is extremely accessible, as if to brook those cues ever further. It honestly does take a bit of time to pinpoint what it actually is—how every impulse suggests the exact decisions made shouldn’t work, but they kind of do. On To Figure Out, you’ll find distinct strains of pop-rock, indie, hardcore and straight-up pop, all vying for space among a very slimmed-down package. The fact that every piece does connect, regardless of how tenuously, is an achievement in itself.
The overall design language would suggest pop-rock as the main point of focus, but Shoreline will certainly take liberties with that when it comes to what they want to thread elsewhere. Darius and Green Paint land with more prominent screaming; Seoul often brushes against the Hot Water Music school of punk thought; there’s even the tiniest speckle of Polyphia adjacency in the particular bending guitars that open Reviver. And there is a bit of dissonance among it all, no less from a mix that feels shallow by design to peel off some of the crustier exterior of that kind of punk. But you can tell that Shoreline are powering through, in meaningful ways. Hansol Seung’s breathier vocals tend to fit better in the less hoary turns taken, furthered by the tight pacing facilitated by cuts like Health and Pen Name.
Said turn isn’t without its bumps naturally, this time in the form of the stodgy, clipped and underpowered Yuppie Kids, in which the allure of alt-pop’s most commercial yet unappealing form is apparent too much to resist. Good thing that’s only in a very small dose, as Shoreline can mostly strike upon what works. They’re great at hooks, for one, where Needles and Loose Contacts are the exact kinds of penetrative, immovable earworms pop-rock like this needs. The natural extension of that is the high-end guitars and punched-in drums of Workaround, as Shoreline show off a ratio of flexibility to tautness that’s borderline one-for-one. Far be it to sideline a band’s own punk cred (especially when a song like Seoul proves it’s very much still there), but a calling in pop-rock is very much platformed on To Figure Out, and executed with fairly consistent panache.
If the overall package were as tightly refined and pruned as what individual moments bring to the table, you’d have a great little listen, as sharp and tactile as they come. Right now, there’s a little pudge in the runtime to deal with (like an interlude that’s absolutely up there in the rankings of pointless interludes), but not so much that Shoreline are dragged down. The best moments do still glisten, and they do so frequently enough to count. That seems to be that aim, particularly in the transitions made from Shoreline’s previous incarnations to this one, and how zeroing in on thrumming, sharp-shooting melody is very much a priority. Overall, that aim has turned out pretty successfully.
For fans of: The Deadnotes, Blackout Problems, Nervus
‘To Figure Out’ by Shoreline is released on 23rd February on Pure Noise Records.
Words by Luke Nuttall
