Formed in 2012, current members vocalist Joy Von Spain, guitarist Nicholas Martinez, new bassist Zach Wise (Hissing), and noise/sound collage artist Masaaki Masao strive to conjure music that’s threatening, beautiful, and harsh. This is an album that attempts to bring together the harsher elements of black metal together with raw angst doom, and a singer who has obviously been influenced by Siouxsie Sioux. The result is something that is totally off the wall, and straining at the very edge of what is listenable. It is like seeing a car crash in slow motion, no-one wants to look but it is so very hard to tear the eyes away.
When this works, this it takes music to a whole new ethereal plane, but when it doesn’t then it is just noise, and I don’t mean that in a positive sense. When people are attempting to push boundaries then they sometimes fail, and that is the case here. This is their second release, and they have played with the likes of Voivod, so they are obviously finding a fan base, but for me there is still a lot of work to be undertaken until they become the finished article. In Joy they do have a singer who can be sweet and soprano when she wants to be, but is far happier playing with harsh notes and screams, and is going to be interesting to understand where they go to from here, as this does feel like a work in progress.
