Flying in from Bologna, Italy are Across the Swarm – a death/extreme metal band with a dancey twist. They mailed me a while ago to say that their debut EP was in preparation and I promptly forgot all about it until it plopped through my door last week!
I’ve had it in the car for the last day or so to give it the once over and it’s… interesting. Across the Swarm are very much extreme metal first and quite traditional as far as that goes. However, within a couple of the tracks (“Just Bodies” and “Formless Wreck”) there are some quick jumps into what I guess the hip kids would call “dub” or something. Sorry – it’s out of my limited musical domain to describe correctly, but it involves samples!
I’m pointing this out as it’s unusual (to me), not because it’s bad. It’s also a little unexpected as these side steps are very short and not in all the tracks or at least less noticeable in some compared to others. Opener “Hang Out”, for instance, uses them more for atmosphere than as part of the tune – more akin to the industrial sounds you’d find in a Fear Factory track.
Unusual is good, though, as it means originality. Someone taking the familiar and giving it a twist.
Oh – some of you may know them as Lacerater. They changed the name recently. Their official page is being built at present, but I’ve linked it below (with other resources) regardless as I’m sure it’ll be worth the wait. Go to their bandcamp page to sample the goods – I can’t get the embedding to work for this album, a problem I’ve not had with bandcamp for some time. Grr :(
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