Review Summary: “You are speaking of the King in Yellow,” I groaned, with a shudder.
The Yellow Sign were a Myspace-era deathcore band from Fowlerville, Michigan, whose original run lasted from 2005 to 2010. Their body of work consists of three EPs – which, when listened to chronologically, details a gradual improvement in songwriting. Their debut,
Swamp, was a very roughly produced, almost demo-quality collection of tracks that could hardly be distinguished from the plethora of other young deathcore outfits at the time, posting their basement-studio recordings on their Myspaces and Last.fms. It was with the release of their second EP,
Ancient, when The Yellow Sign had really begun to develop their own distinct sound, opting for a primarily downtempo approach, with very sludgy riffs with high distortion. Their final collection of tracks, the
Post Oblivion EP, is when the band reached the opus of their style, seamlessly mixing their brooding sound with melodic passages throughout.
The tracks on
Post Oblivion run over or near five minutes apiece, giving each plenty of time to groove, thrash, and saunter to their cathartic conclusions. I want to emphasize how messy their overall sound is; despite how tight the compositions are, each instrument is loud and boastful, almost as if they are begrudgingly working together to play the same song. The high distortion as well as the full range of the production makes for an almost post-metal variety of atmosphere. The breakdowns are made impactful with bass drops, and the riffs are sent swiftly with frequent blast beats. There are typically guitar leads being played over the rhythm section; sometimes melodic, other times abrasive. The vocals – perhaps the tamest aspect of the band – usually stay around a mid-range guttural, and are surprisingly easy to understand. There is a particularly catchy and emotive verse toward the end of
Creature that I could imagine anyone who gives it multiple listens will begin to whisper-scream along with.
The Yellow Sign named themselves after a well-known short story by horror author Robert W. Chambers, which is about a play called
The King in Yellow which simultaneously causes those who read it to spiral into madness, and those who refuse to read it to go mad with curiosity. Having read the story in high school after discovering the band and its namesake, I don’t think they could have chosen a more accurate name to represent their sound.
Post Oblivion plunges those who dare to listen into audial insanity, yet it’s beckoning uniqueness within the scope of deathcore past and present could only cause those who have learned of its existence (the readers of my review) to perish of curiosity lest they listen.
