Review Summary: Eeeeverything's not awesome.
Everything is awful, life is pain, succumb to it. Such is the tone of Minors’ second album, the aptly titled,
“Abject Bodies”. With venomous hardcore adrenaline fuelling the bulky muscles of their blackened sludge, Minors ruthlessly delivers a fistful of clenched barbed wire into the face of literally anything that stands in their way without a second glance at the damage they have caused. Whilst their previous album was only released 14 months prior to this, Minors exhibit a considerable maturation whereby their candidly self-proclaimed ‘endless pit of despair’ (in relation to their debut album,
“Atrophy”) has been manipulated into something more spiteful than outrightly disheartening.
Tracing the same scars left by bands such as Trap Them, Black Breath and chiefly Converge, Minors’ sound is largely based around a vitriolic whirlwind of quaking drums, choking vocals and brutal guitars. Tracks such as “Consumed” and “Meanderist” are virtually unstoppable forces of pure rage zeroed in on whatever ill-fated victim they choose. Indeed, every track on this album has a target; this is not merely an unfocused wall of noise. Clenching riffs erupt from the constant beatings in the aforementioned songs to attest that Minors are perfectly in control of their chaos, as do the constant shattering drums and disgorging vocals. At a second over 30 minutes, Minors’ dependency lies largely on brevity, however,
“Abject Bodies” still exhibits some stand out moments. “Boneyard” contains perhaps the best instance where, after 38 seconds, they launch into this terrifyingly heartless rhythm. It’s utterly merciless and absolutely fantastic, and it underlines that this album isn’t merely the intimidating shadow of a threat, this is the punishment executed without the luxury of even being threatened.
Advantageously, Minors do not abandon the often-overlooked importance of bass in this album and subsequently, every song casts a dominant attitude whereby the low end creates this sort of sincere presence in the mix. In particular songs such as “Erode” and the title track, the heightened focus on the daunting bass sounds if the band are warning you: ‘these are not empty threats...’ The way in which the album’s whole tempo is slowed down on the former makes the song sound predatory, like some beast letting its prey hurt, observing the blood pour slowly from its open wounds.
While
“Abject Bodies” lacks the personal helplessness that Converge illustrates and is not as tangibly bleak as the latest Daughters album, the fact that you’ll hear how
“Abject Bodies”” is comparable to these high calibre bands and records plus the fact that Deathwish and Holy Roar have snapped them up underlines how impressive it record is. With another substantial leap in development, Minors could end up certainly being one of the best bands of the brutal bunch to emerge out of the overpopulated hardcore genre.
