Review Summary: short and cathartic
Lord Snow is a relatively unknown three-piece hardcore/screamo band from Chicago. Some of its members come from other hardcore acts such as Raw Nerve and Suffix. Going into this and even now, I don't know too much about this band besides that they are self proclaimed 'feminist-vegan hardcore'. That is a mouthful, I know. But please don't let that discourage you, because nothing about this band is conventional, yet they remain so damn alluring.
Lord Snow's sound is pretty unique. I mean, foremost, they have an in-your-face and energetic sound, but its so much more than that. All the members play their respected instruments with a technical proficiency that is something to behold. Though they may be quite disillusioning at first, they're schizophrenic, spastic, and sometimes even melancholy noise is all part of the charm. There are plenty of tempo shifts and emotional energy throughout. But some may find the vocalist/bassist Steph's shrill screams a bit grating in particular on first listen. I couldn't imagine a better voice to suit this sound. This band can be defined as skramz/screamo, and it's honestly some of the best instrumentation in the whole genre. Those distorted, disconsolate guitar playing that really
gets it, all backed up by quick, energetic drums that are perfect for each other. Following the trend of all their previous work up to now, almost all the tracks on this LP have a very short running time. Most are barely over a minute. They're sweet and short blasts of aggression with a tint of sadness. A lot of the songs being so short and hopping from song to song can be kind of jarring, sometimes feeling like an idea is never fully fleshed out. The track "Stormcloak" is a perfect embodiment of their sound. At around twenty-one seconds in the vocals and guitar sync up so wonderfully. The vocals being used here more as a melody enhancer for the track. "Yellow marillo/booker dewitt" is a nice change of pace with its slightly more collected sound and even dare I say it, jazzy drumming. One of the longer tracks and a personal highlight for me.
And I really have to mention the track that is literally 5x longer than most of the tracks on here, the title track. It's definitely the most varied and has all the band members showing off their chops. About half way through the track all the instruments sync up and the drums begin rolling and growing behind everything creating a momentum that truly feels greater than the sum of its parts. By the end of it, you feel blue-balled. And I mean that in the best way possible. You want more, you feel like you are kind of left hanging and that things are just really getting started. It's that feeling that keeps making me come back, and maybe it was an underlying intention all along.
