The daggering drums pierce through the steel thick atmosphere created by this gloom fuelled epic, in the puncture wounds left behind the haunting guitars and vocals weave a spectral dance. The sound is so palpably dense that you could almost choke on it.
There are few songs that so perfectly capture the mood of feeling behind their title as the very aptly named ‘Glum‘. It begins with this ghostly chorus of deep choral humming in the background, while a dancing frenetic drum beat pounds out a rhythm that seems almost at odds with the rest of the sound. The beauty is in the dissonance though, it’s sumptuously uncomfortable.
There is an electricity coursing through every layer of the track that courses out from the speakers to tingle your skin. The soundscape is deceptively complex and hums with the breath like pulsing energy of the deep and throaty vocals at its bed.
At the upper layer the soft lead vocals deliver a poetic and incredibly emotive performance. While it might not scream with it’s pain, it wields its pen just as powerfully. As the floor of the song drops out and we descend into the darkest depths of the chorus, the vocals and lyrics keep step easily, painting a beautifully dark masterpiece.
There is something familiar about the sound, maybe it speaks to the ennui or existential dread inside us all. It’s an experimental and creative sound that draws upon inspirations such as The Cure and Sonic Youth, smashing them together into this terrifyingly powerful gloom. It sounds like A Place To Bury Strangers but if their parents were in and they had to keep the volume down. It’s like The Horrors but sadder. It’s like nothing else really, and it’s magnificent.
Words by Matt Miles
