Labels: Dizzy Storm – Tokyo Jupiter
Review by: Oli Saunders
I’ve always had a soft spot for Archives, ever since I heard their demo a few years ago. The screamo sound with post rock parts was quite new then, or at least new to me, and whilst I would have to say I preferred other bands like June Paik and ET Tu Brute I still found Archives to be pretty decent. I read good things about their live perforances too, sadly I don’t think they ventured too far south from Scotland and I never saw them.
The band broke up last year, however, they had been writing material for an album and recorded in at the time (June 2008). Since then it is has been an in progress project but thankfully it has now come out, released in July 2009. The result is another solid effort of nice post rock melodies in amongst screams of anguish. The vocals are quite distinct which is a good thing as this makes them stand out from the fair number of bands that now play this style. The instrumental parts never last too long and everything stays interesting throughout. There are dual vocals to times which works well, I can’t remember if they did this on the demo.
Two of the three songs from the demo are on this album, but rerecorded (maybe altered slightly too if my ears serve me correctly). ‘What’s With All The Brutal Honesty’ has always been a favourite of mine. ‘Divine Country’ ends the album really well. The newer tracks also hold their own though, for example, the first song ‘Skvotter’ is a really good intro and ‘Victory Gin’ stands out too. Overall this is cool stuff and Archives are the only UK band I know that have attempted this style so blatantly. Mesa Verde and Night And The City have some fairly long instrumental parts of course but don’t really fit into the genre as much. Shame there are no lyrics at all but I don’t want to end on a negative, so let me just say that this is a good ending for the band, and I am interested to see what members will now get involved in.
1st September 2009