ALBUM REVIEW: Altered Pasts – Thoughtcrimes
It’s been clear for a while now that Billy Rymer is a lot more than ‘just the drummer’. Anyone who can hold together the sheer chaos of a band like THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN – as indeed he did for their final trio of studio albums – is a remarkable specimen indeed. Add to that his contributions to the scene in the years since that band’s departure, including notable work with the likes of END and GLASSJAW, and you’ll find few CVs that fall under the broad umbrella of hardcore that are quite as stacked as his. As if that wasn’t enough, with THOUGHTCRIMES he continues to prove that ‘drummer’ is just the tip of the iceberg.
Taking on the roles of guitarist and songwriter, whilst still holding down percussive duties because let’s face it who else would want to do that when you’ve got the guy who played on a track like Prancer standing right in front of you, Rymer has led THOUGHTCRIMES ably to their new home of Pure Noise Records, with whom they release their debut full-length Altered Pasts this Friday. As anyone who heard the band’s debut EP Tap Night might have expected, it’s a record that delivers massively on the caustic fare Rymer conjured so wonderfully with DILLINGER, with most of its tracks sure to scratch that feral mathy itch that many bands have reached for over the past five years.
Crucially though, Altered Pasts, and by extension THOUGHTCRIMES as a whole, isn’t a matter of reliving or rehashing Rymer’s past glories. This is very much the work of a band with its own purpose, and as much as the contorted fury of a track like Panopticon or the chaotic stabbing of recent single Keyhole Romance may feel somewhat comfortingly familiar, there’s also an urgency and quality that ensures the record never becomes tired or uninteresting. One trick up the band’s sleeve which also came through on Tap Night is their use of electronic, almost trap-inflected breaks. It’s a relatively unique take on the loud-quiet dynamic that a lot of bands like this use to keep their music compelling, and one that invariably sharpens the attack of the rest of the record wherever it appears.
Another essential tool in the arsenal is frontman Rick Pepa. As a harsh vocalist, you could probably say he’s pretty standard – not weak by any means, but largely just doing what a chaotic hardcore record like this requires of him. Add to that his impressive clean work however and the result is a truly versatile performance that once again only elevates the sense of variation on Altered Pasts. At points, his cleans and the music behind them even inject a somewhat DEFTONES-esque level of expanse to proceedings, including not least in the likes of album highlight New Infinities, or the moody, grunge-inflected Lunar Waves which brings the record to a suitably climactic close.
It’s also clear that THOUGHTCRIMES have paid a good deal of attention to the overall structure and flow of the record – another move that pays dividends. It seems no accident for example that the electronics-driven interlude of the title track leads directly into the particularly unhinged Dare I Say, or that Hai Un Accendido, which centres on a poem written and recited for the band by their friend Michael Clarity, sets up the violent later pairing of Conscience On Tilt and The Drowning Man. All this helps Altered Pasts’ 35 minutes to fly by, leaving an impression of considerable but considered savagery in the process.
Of course, none of this comes as a huge shock. Rymer’s calibre has been without question for over a decade now, and with his collaborators in THOUGHTCRIMES all he has done is prove that further still. That doesn’t take away from this being a killer debut though; Altered Pasts comfortably holds its own with some of the best chaotic hardcore records of recent years, while also offering enough of its own identity to allow Rymer and co. to start carving out a decent little niche of their own.
Rating: 8/10
Altered Pasts is set for release on August 26th via Pure Noise Records.
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