Labels: LongLegsLongArms
Review by: Alex Deller
Have to admit, I’ve not checked in on Swarrrm in quite some time … maybe not since the split with Embalming Theatre. It’s reassuring to know that in the intervening years they’ve not gotten any saner, and if ‘ã”ã”Âã”Åã¯ãÂËã”Âã””¹’ (a.k.a. ‘Beginning To Break’) is anything to go by then I should probably be making up for lost time. While not as ferocious as their earliest releases things are still resolutely odd, the band’s current iteration drawing parallels with Endon, Krallice and Envy thanks to the way the furious flurries of speed, chaos and insanity are offset by a superabundance of crystalline melody. To complement the madness vocalist Tsukasa Harakawa (the same fella from Hellchild, I think) steps up to the plate, offering a random array of howls, gurgles and hoary, nearly-tuneful rasps that aren’t too far from a drunk Frankie Stubbs. Despite the weirdness, the parts combine to form something curiously compelling … like a towering alien sculpture that, depending on how the light catches it, is either beautiful, bizarre or downright terrifying.