Bleeding Kansas
Dead Under Decor
8.2
Bleeding Kansas is a relatively new band but they managed to capture my attention with their innovative debut EP that brought together the seemingly divergent styles of technical noisecore, crust and post hardcore into a successful whole. Sounds like a mouthful but this latest, Dead Under Decor, is another masterful example of cross genre splicing creating something truly interesting. Here their punishing brand of dirty post hardcore, filled with obtuse song structures that slither and snake their way into a unique blend of outright aggression and panting, barely contained restraint provides notice that their EP wasn’t a flash in the pan.
Stylistically they borrow a lot from the erratic tempos and convoluted riffing of Botch but wrap it in a scummier, meatier sound reminiscent of a mix between the filthy guitar buzz of fellow dirt merchants Cursed and the crushing, bass heavy low end of crust heavyweights His Hero Is Gone. This assault is packaged in a constantly shifting pace within the songs, from slow to fast to heavy to light that is spiced up with quick, quirky lead guitar work. This keeps you on your toes but the songs lack the impact of a big hook-filled chorus which may be a drawback to some. After listening to this you know you’ve heard something special but you sure can’t hum along to it walking down the street. And this is even after they somewhat streamlined their sound as the EP is full of even more ambiguous songwriting than this full length.
One area which might not go over well with metalheads is the vocals. The gruff, tortured vocals aren’t metal in the vokills sense of the word but neither are they sissy, high pitched screamo either. If I had to categorize it I’d say it’s on the more brutal end of the screamo spectrum which suits the more varied songwriting style better than a straight metal barker would have. During their mellower (relatively of course) sections it would sound pretty lame to have a total throat ripper.
This release isn’t metal, which is why they are on Abacus instead of Century, but you’d be hard pressed to find a more distinct band playing really heavy music out there right now. I guarantee you won’t hear another record like this until this band releases another one so if you’re looking for something truly different, then give this a try.
