BAND OF THE WEEK: Death Engine
Zero chill, all noise (rock), and then some.
There’s an old American Dad episode where Reginald the Koala gets quite anxious, to the point where he is “in a inner tube, in a pool, with a drink, and he can't get right”. It’s funnier when he says it, look:
And that’s pretty much Death Engine, a French band whose new album ‘Ocean’ is out today. I assume they aren’t like that because they just saw a man with an unusually large pair of testicles like Reginald did, but musically speaking, they are certainly fucking wound up into a tight ball of stress and angst and distilled rage. The typically very cool Throatruiner press release in the email where the promo this record kindly came through a couple of months ago already (learn, other labels!) calls their sound “cold” and “nervous”, and this last adjective in particular is very well used - these guys are the aural equivalent of a sweaty dude muttering to himself in an alley while he paces back and forth kicking a trashcan at random intervals. You won’t even go near that shit unless you’re specifically looking for serious trouble. And yet, despite harshness being the main feeling you take from the album’s first spins, ‘Ocean’ isn’t just an atonal grey brick of noise. It’s cold, but it’s not frozen. If you and your record collection are of a certain disposition, your first thoughts will immediately go to early Unsane, 16 or even godheadSilo, not to mention guitarist / vocalist Mikaël Le Diraison’s voice which kinda sounds like Devin in prime Strapping Young Lad mode here and there, but at the same time there is a curious finesse at work, in the structure of their songwriting and in the seldom moments where the wall of sound lets up, dynamics that make the album compelling without any loss of aggression, and that also justify some of the post-metal tags being thrown around the band. Imagine a sort of caveman approach to Cult Of Luna’s bleakest, most direct moments and you also wouldn’t be too far off ‘Ocean’s best moments. Like this song here, ‘Leaden Silence’, one of my favourites on the record for which they did a video:
Some intensity there, right? But also some cracks for the light to get in. No chill, lots of noise, but nevertheless not 100% hopeless. That’s how they get ya. Anyway, you can take that as a blueprint for the rest of the album - if you dig this tune, you’ll love the whole thing. And while you’re at it, go check out their previous two outings - though after living with this beast for a while it’s clearly become my favourite of theirs so far, both ‘Mud’ (2015) and ‘Place Noire’ (2018) are less elaborate yet also ferocious beasts with their own merits.
And yeah, one extra compliment to them is that choosing Death Engine for this first 2023 edition of Band Of The Week wasn’t easy, there’s a ton of great stuff being released today. Also go check out Scúru Fitchádu’s new album here, for instance, and I’ll get back to that one next week.
You can find Death Engine on Bandcamp, Facebook, Instagram and Spotify.