Review Summary: An extremely solid, if not a bit disjointed, debut.
Anyone that is a fan of black metal or screamo knows that a lot more bands are mixing those two sounds. A band like Deafheaven, clearly, has pioneered this particular sound. To be honest, the black metal/screamo mashup has been done ad nauseam over the past decade and a half. Bands come and go, never really leaving any real impact. Atlanta’s Low Before the Breeze is a newer band on the scene and their debut album,
A Hole Beneath the Home We Shared, goes to show that there can be some uniqueness in a super stagnant genre.
The first thing you’ll notice is that there is an extremely heavy influence of noise/noise rock. The intro is full of static and what sounds like television broadcasts. This gives the album a post-apocalyptic feeling. A sense of oncoming devastation, and devastation we receive. The reverb-laden, mathcore style riffs feel as if you just dove headfirst into a glitchy black hole, spiraling into pure carnage. There’s a clear late 80s/early 90s noise rock/post-hardcore influence a la Shellac or Big Black. Albini style production hits you with a feeling like you’re sinking into a grimey tar pit.
This isn’t a typical sound for an album based in screamo and black metal. Even the vocals are unique for this sound. They’re not shrieks and they’re not generic hardcore wails either, they're gruff and guttural, almost sounding like they wouldn’t be out of place on a Cannibal Corpse record. In fact, a lot of the riffs here are clearly death metal influenced as well. My main issue is that I feel like all of the influences could’ve been meshed just a tad more consistently. On their own, they sound savage as hell indeed, but the cohesion between all the sounds just feels a tad disjointed. The screamo parts and the black metal bits could be melded together instead of sounding like they’re coming from two separate recordings at times.
But let's be fair, this is just a debut album. The guys of Low Before the Breeze have plenty of time to perfect their craft.
A Hole Beneath the Home We Shared is a solid stepping stone in the right direction. This is still an intense cluster of killer riffs, atmospheric and grating (in a good way) noise rock bits and a dirty 90s post-hardcore intensity. We may be in for a huge jump with whatever they decide to do next. In the meantime, let this album bite your face off.
