Labels: One Day Saviour
Review by: Alex Deller
For me, Knives and Greenwater were something of an anomaly. Seemingly appearing out of nowhere on a split 7″ with the mighty Racebannon and clattering through two songs of new-fangled screamoviolence with a scary black metal twist, drenched in keyboards (but not in the time-honoured sci-fi style of bands like the Locust or An Albatross) and a mastery of dynamics that could make the weak of will weep like children. This one song is more of the same, and still sounds streets ahead of most of this tired yet oddly compelling genre. Yes, we have unintelligably screamed vocals, guitar torture and tinpot drumming. But we also have lyrics lifted directly from Hunter S. Thompson (though, admittedly, they don’t actually seem to match with what the guy is hollering”¦) and swirling keyboards that could almost have crept out of some Carpathian forest, or at least out of the toystore keyboard owned by a scary man wearing his mother’s makeup and a blasphemous t-shirt. Fucking genius.
Suicde Note bedeck the other side with a fairly uninspiring pair of songs that mash together the likes of Coalesce, Disembodied, Converge and countless other modern-day metalcore acts. Grunt grunt, scream scream. Technical showpiece to demonstrate profficency and musicianship. Not bad. Nothing new. More fun than pissing blood, but not something that will be in frequent rotation.
Knives and greenwater are the best ghost train you’ve ever been on. Suicide Note, in comparison, are the cruelly-rigged coconut shy destined to leave youngsters disappointed.