Chaotic, contorted and extremely noisy, Birds In Row sounds to me like a desperate protest. Listen throughout several times this “You, Me, and The Violence” and – honestly – still don’t came through anything else then anger and – eventually – bitterness. Without reading the printed lyrics, this raw fury seems lost in the hurricane of the noise.
The first three tracks are running through like a night train, “Guillotine” it’s their first track where they leave the tempo slower and the riffs with the screaming vocals finally making some – but not too much – sense. The following “Walter Freeman” is also a slower, but still weighty enough chaotic Hardcore piece while surprisingly, the very next “Last Last Chance” it’s an experimental dark Blues, in a very post-everything sense which blows directly into the explosive title track. One of their best butcheries throughout.
And like in a nightmare or a loop, everything comes back to rape your ears all over again starting with the slow grinding “Grey Hair”, through the fastest “The Illusionist” and the almost anthematic “Police & Thieves” (The Clash [dis]connection?). Then again, the closing “Lovers Have Their Say” it’s an escapade into smooth chords, acoustic teasing, counselor softness, being humanly gentle even when things are getting a little bit rough. It’s an almost 13 minutes long trip, a Shoegaze kind of closing with large, foggy spaces for a brutally disturbing material. Read more Birds In Row – You, Me, and The Violence (2012) ›