Review Summary: Starting to debilitate...
Fromjoy is a project hailing from the great state of Texas providing a various array of sounds that can be slightly difficult to pinpoint. While having the meathead anger and ignorance of hardcore the musicality can be akin to genres such as mathcore and jungle. Fromjoy has piqued my interest ever since I initially found them through mathcore index after the release of their debut effort “It Lingers”. After this release, there was an almost sort of rebrand of their sound seemingly for their release “Away” mostly focusing on the electronic influences on their music. During the last track of the EP titled “Daedalus”, we get a bit of a teaser of what's to come but there is no preparation that could’ve been put in place for their self-titled release.
Fromjoy is an ugly, angry, and tortured slew of sounds, a genre-bending mix of sounds that try to strain the listener in many ways. Musically pushing their boundaries further than ever before, panic chords work alongside breakbeats to create a balance within the short 26-minute listen stretched to feel like an eternity in a cyberpunk nightmare. The opening 3 tracks of the record makes this atmosphere feels never-ending, like the dread of a hallway that never ends, smoke pluming the walls of the emptiness. These tracks have some of the most intense moments in the record such as the horrific oscillating sample before the breakdown in “Morbidly Perfect” and the pig squeal building up to the climax of “Docility”. Along with this songs such as "Machine" and the title track "fromjoy" feel never ending, like the entire band is spiraling with nothing but darkness surrounding. Despite these moments being crafted to be a release of rage and disgust there’s also a sense of vulnerability within the record.
One of the most special qualities of Fromjoy is the emotional sensibility of the record that not a lot of current hardcore has. Oftentimes there’s a sense of blatant ignorance emotionally that accompanies the heaviness of this kind of music but in this instance, there’s so much to unpack from within the record. Critiquing the savior complex mindset of modern society and its reliance on a figure to follow, as well as the current police state of North America, themes are played with and handled in a much more mature manner than expected. Every bit of this commentary builds up to a breaking point in the closer “Icarus” with its closing lyrics feeling like an escape from the computer wires straining your wrist like chains. The heartbreak of knowing you aren’t something you're proud of or even comfortable lingers on this record and builds to a final breaking point. A retrospect of the current state of affairs everyone has been left to handle along with the breaking point, can drive someone to think about the human condition we simply can’t escape from. Fromjoy is an effort within this field of music that doesn’t come often but when it does feels incredibly sincere, and thoughtful, remaining effective. Everyone is weak and flawed in some way shape or form, the first step to fixing it is recognizing that and admitting it. This process takes up a full-length record for Fromjoy and leaves a lasting impression on those who listen.
