Review by: Oli Saunders
‘Raging’ would be the best word to sum up the recent Resurrectionists and Battle of Wolf 359 UK tour. This word gets constantly thrown about with this style of music but that’s because it’s absolutely spot on in it’s description. Both were incredible when I managed to catch them in Brighton, along with Attack! Vipers! and The Plague Sermon who both also contributed to an awesome gig, one that I’ll always remember. Both were so flat out and yet completely tight. Hopefully if you like this kind of music you managed to catch them during the tour.
Onto the record, it unsurprisingly turns out to be an extension of Resurrectionists’ sound that began with their demo a couple of years back and continued more recently with their split with Merkit. I’ve mentioned the drumming before in reviews of these – live it was just ridiculous – on this record it actually seems a bit lower in the mix than previous, but it still sounds incredible. The guitar and bass keep things in check and add some variation, whilst the two vocalists go for it over the top. The deeper growls of Björn contrast well with the high pitched screams of Sabine. In its entirety the music remains fairly similar in sound throughout, but that’s not really a problem. Also, the variation is there, it’s just subtlely hidden when compared with the heaviness of it all. The whole experience lasts just under 16 minutes, mainly quickfire songs that last around a minute. The band throw in an Eyehategod cover at the end which is nearly six minutes long, I have not heard the original but anyway the song here sounds really good. I would love to see the band write a few longer songs of this type just to mix things up a bit more and also I think they would be really good at it.
Overall, the record slays. A sound has been defined, that maybe lies somewhere between Systral and more modern emoviolence, and then absolutely nailed.
4th April 2010