This band has been circling around on blogs for a while now and I have had it on my computer for more than a month. I remember that when Jamie from "Drainland" sent me an email I just went to check their tunes on myspace and was completely blown away. But instead of just randomly posting them on the blog, I really wanted to take an honest listen to their music and write down something appropriate. Don't know how much this month of hibernation helped, since I'm stunned by "Drainland" each time they hit the speakers. We will see...
"Drainland" is a quintet from Dublin, Ireland and for a start lets just say that they play hardcore. After I took a listen on their myspace, first thing flying into my player was "Swine" and once it started rolling over to my ears I thought that I played some other band. Song number one, "Ark", kicks off fast, aggressive and pounding, very different from what you get to hear on their web page. Somewhere at the middle of the track you get a feeling that this isn't actually your average hardcore band. Tempo drops dramatically, everything becomes slower and almost tormenting, with an extremely raw and primal sound, sometimes reminding me of "In the Final Analysis". By the time "Cathode Rites" hits the speakers you realize that you are dealing with a combination of hardcore and sludge, with their sound constantly bouncing between the two. One second there is this sluggish, distortion filled section and then you just get smacked in the face by a fast and heavy hardcore blast, go so close to sounding like crust. Though variations are present, I have a feeling like this demo has been influenced by hardcore a bit more. For example, the song "Crash" is the longest song and despite the 3/4 of the song being slow and really sludge oriented, you get a sense that the short, violent outbursts cast a shadow on the rest of the song. There is not much balance between the clash of the genres, so you basically get poked into the eye by only one of them.
Moving onto "And So Our Troubles Began"...these troubles could very well be replaced by "changes", since this release opens up a completely new chapter in the life of this band. Once I finished listening to "Swine" and then played this 12'', I really became aware of some drastic differences and important aspects of their tunes, which you can't quite tell if you listen to just one release. I'll elaborate that later...
Anyway, "Jellyfish" starts this one with an amazing "Elodea"-like guitar playing, a trancing, eerie melody, which explodes seconds later, the whole band just kicking you down into the earth. The thing you instantly realize is the magnificent quality of recording, which is just ultimately clean. Yes, I know that sludge should be raw and filthy, but this pure sound serves this band well. Once you shit your pants during the course of this song, you also sense that something is different when compared to the demo, but it's not quite yet apparent. Once the third track named "Limb Template" hit the road, I got a grasp of what "Drainland" did with their sound. In contrast to the demo, they took the two previously mentioned genres and mixed them up so much that it became hard to decipher which is which. On "And So Our Troubles Began" you don't have a feeling that one genre beats the other, since here it is all melded so well. This release is extremely aggressive, noisy and maddening, but at the same time it is epic, dark and just plainly put huge. The sound became massive and with enough volume you get completely swallowed by it. Everything going on here is very fluid and it just flows right past you, not giving you enough time to analyze anything. There are variations in sound, one second slow, one second brutally fast, but it is so well composed that you don't notice the border between the two.
In the end, I abnormally loved this band. I was very happy that I first took a listen to the demo, since it very well shows the evolution of the band and their sound. And, probably more important, it gives you a deeper connection and understanding of the 12'' release. As it was mentioned in the beginning of this writeup, most of you probably know about this project due to it being already present on the web, but those of you who don't I honestly urge you to give this band a try. Some of you lucky bastards will hear them on "Cry Me A River" festival, so better prepare yourself! I really predict a fantastic future for this band and hope that they continue to flourish as they did so far.
You can write to "Drainland" on their myspace page here, follow them on tumblr here or buy their stuff here.
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