Review Summary: They shred and they go "raaaaaahh." They also do it rather well.
French hardcore act Plebeian Grandstand knows that
Nice Days Are Weak, and this knowledge is referenced by the sound presented on their debut full-length. A band that enjoys nice days wouldn't ever make music this insane or this chaotic. Because Plebeian Grandstand knows that the only thing weaker than nice days is melody. Simply put, melody is something these boys don't do. They would very much prefer to beat you senseless with a nonstop barrage of Converge-esque shrieks, frenetic drums, and unrelenting, highly technical, mathy guitars. There are a couple of short, ambient instrumental breaks (the opener and
Pie in the Sky), but after each of these songs the band quickly transitions from
Orb Ab Chao (order to chaos) and do not let up on you again.
Their sound is intense, and it may be
Easy To Hate at first, but you'll soon find that it's
Hard to Define exactly why you hate them. With enough listens, you'll discover all of the subtleties and nuances hidden beneath the constant aural assault of riffs and dissonance, and you'll wonder how you ever disliked these guys. The album is like the end of the world in its frantic intensity, and while maybe you
Don't Expect Much From World's End at first, it will soon become like a drug. You'll keep coming back for more, and while this strange addiction may be as baffling as a
Pie In the Sky, you're not complaining. After a while you'll begin to pick out some subtle black metal influences in the vocals and the riffs, setting the album even farther apart from its peers.
You might even be enthralled enough to try and introduce your uninitiated bro to this, but don't expect much. If you, a bro who is already relatively acclimated to chaotic hardcore, had trouble "getting" this, then what do you expect your bro, who is more likely than not a hardcore newbie, to think of this? In the end it doesn't matter what he thinks, because this is something that not many will appreciate. As Plebeian Grandstand themselves so wisely put it,
Mein Kopf Ist Meine Heimat (my head is home), and this crap had better stay in your head(phones), for if it leaves its true home, it may harm someone. People can only take so many unintelligable vocal lines and melodically challenged shred riffs before something bad happens, and you must remember this at all times.
Even for you, this will be a difficult album, and you have to be in the right mood to experience it to its fullest. You don't have to be angry to get this: you have to be
damn pissed. Because this is really pissed music, so the question remains:
Are You Angry, or Are You Boring?. Boring people will never understand this band: angry people will, even if it takes a while. They will understand that these dudes are some of the most technically proficient in the genre, and that they are also great songwriters. Yeah, you heard me right: even if this music sounds like random dissonant riffs and raaaaahhs thrown together on first listen, after some acclimation you will be amazed at how they manage to pull off an 8+ minute song (the closing track(s)) of random dissonant riffs and raaaaahhs that doesn't ever get old throughout its whole duration. This band has major skill, and we can only begin to imagine where they'll be in the future.
