Labels: Alchimia
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Yoink. If you like I were labouring under the misconception that French emo outside of Amanda Woodward had forgotten how to be good, then you owe it to yourself to introduce yourself to Mihai Edrisch. Now whilst this band may be a little more debted to the ferocity of Envy or the swirling groove of the Red Scare than the raw emo of Jasemine, they most certainly deliver on here. 9 tracks of intense and powerful hardcore that rarely lets up. There are moments when I think that perhaps it starts relying on the thundering hardcore side a little too much, but when they kick back into the fall on a floor in a heap moments such as on the 3rd track then it all seems worth it. The vocals are full on French sobbing, just how it should be, whilst the guitars pound all around to emphasise what is already obvious. This 3rd track is quite something, leaving me pretty drained after it crushes it’s way through 3 and a bit minutes of crying and dying. This tends to be the structure they stick to throughout the CD, building up each song with lots of pained vocals and layers of thick guitar that build to crescendo’s then drop out for moments of respite before coming back in again. It’s a tried and trusted formula, but Mihai Edrisch have it utterly mastered across the course of this captivating CD. I was rather taken by the final track, a really nice instrumental with samples of what sounds like children playing. EMO. And on top of the great music, it’s packaged in a non-standard way for CD’s, it’s nice when people take care putting together their releases.
Overall a very fine CD that will impress a lot of people if only they get to hear it.