While some bands are keen to take the listener on a journey through time and space, Rolo Tomassi sneak up behind you and push you down the stairs.
Three years have passed since the Yorkshire quintet’s last full-length, Astraea, and now they’ve returned to the hallowed home of Holy Roar for their fifth and most ferocious album yet.
Opening on a barrage of bile and hate from Eva Spence’s menacing barks and Dillinger-esque stabbing instrumentals, the dark tone of Grievances is set. Rolo Tomassi’s inherent sound hasn’t changed over the past decade and there’s a sense of nostalgia with the keyboard that takes you back to the experimental scene in the late 00s.
Thankfully amongst the cacophony lies the odd interlude allowing you to re-straighten the pictures on your wall and reattach your retinas for the floor-ripping anthem, Stage Knives, that attacks your system on par with Party Wounds. The swooshing soundscapes on the likes of Crystal Cascades borrow from 65DaysOfStatic’s book of post-metal palate-cleansing.
Feedback and strings soothe and numb your ears until the aural exorcism crashes in like waves of molten metal, solidifying your senses until you finally surrender to the murky depths the band call home./o:p
