ALBUM REVIEW: Hacksaw Morissette – Shiverboard
New York’s SHIVERBOARD may not be the biggest band within the East Coast’s vibrant and varied extreme metal underground, but they are certainly one of the most original. In fact, the band’s sound is so out of left-field – drawing heavy influence not only from the standard grindcore, punk and death metal acts that heavier bands often turn to, but also alternative rock, harsh noise and even touches of psychedelia – that they were almost destined to become outliers within any scene, dubbing their impressively frenetic and demented style “alternative grindcore” and carving out a small but respectable niche both as a live band and on record. Their latest album, Hacksaw Morissette, is yet another impressive triumph for the experimental trio, expanding on their established sound and becoming much tighter as a band whilst simultaneously being more adventurous with their songwriting.
Hacksaw Morissette – with its stringent guitar sound, acerbic vocals and urgent pace – kicks things off impressively, with jarring hooks, sudden lapses into noise and frenetic intensity making this an incredibly imaginative and broad ranging start to the record that sets the listener up for the unpredictability to come. All Black Snoopy is another great track that explores the touches of post-hardcore that were present in the opener, with lighter guitars and energetic drums punctuated by the searing vocals which carve through the mix and make this sound incredibly sinister. Chastity Jeans, another fast and feral piece of music, has a noisier, rawer sound, with the playful riffs standing in stark contrast with the chaotic drums, bass and vocals, providing another interesting twist on a classic grindcore sound that eventually comes to a close in a sea of domineering electronics.
Drug Test is very much driven by its punchy bassline, with the noxious vocals and dense, chugging guitars being interwoven around them as discordant flourishes and a few clean guitar licks further cement the demented and constantly shifting sound of this album. Stain Remover, a short, sharp shock of a track even by this record’s standards, takes the lean, punky guitars and cacophonous flourishes of earlier songs and pairs them with acidic snarls and cymbal-heavy drums, blending the harsh and polished sides of the band’s sound extremely well. If I Can’t Have Love I Want Power, in every other regard than its vocals, is clearly taking its cues from great bands like FUGAZI, with thrashing guitars, authoritative drums and tight bass all making for an exceptionally memorable sound, with the frenzied moments and noise passages that are peppered liberally throughout adding a vicious edge to proceedings. Residential Festering, another brief burst of bellicose brutality, takes this further into hardcore territory, with a distinctly dirty production that only adds to the bestial effect.
Amphibian Fruit Punch, a song that ratchets the tempo up to near unhinged speeds, takes the formula of the last three or four tracks and pushes it to its most strident edges, with the vocals especially being perhaps the most visceral they have been on the whole record. There are chunky, hook-laden interludes that break up the ferocity with an accessible sound, but nonetheless this track stands as one of the record’s most punishing offerings. Chainsaw Twins is a longer track that drags the pace to a relative crawl in comparison with the unbridled aggression of its predecessor, but it still makes room for lots of dissonance, injecting a sludgy, murky quality to everything and remaining every bit as fierce as earlier songs, with the jarring, feral sound of the track’s closing moments pushing things firmly towards math rock.
The Garbage Stork seemingly picks up the last track’s core formula, with slick, melody-tinged guitars and solid, lively drums providing a great backdrop to the grating vocals, gradually shifting to a softer, almost post-rock sound, defined by its minimalism, reversing the established trope of building to a monstrous climax within a song. Cryptic Bismuth really sees the noise that has been hinted at on earlier tracks take on a central role, with the music rising to the surface before retreating back to allow a crackling, static blare to take over, and marking the lurches between different motifs quite abruptly, without these shifts feeling forced. Torrential Drencher reverts to a shorter, punchier style, with the music feeling relatively reserved in comparison to the outright aural assault of the previous effort, opting for a crisper guitar style which is inevitably broken up by rabid moments.
Vitamins Of Darkness, with its dense, ominous guitar and bass tone and screeching feedback, serves as another metamorphosis, this time to a borderline industrial sound, eventually veering back to hardcore, but still making for a great change of pace that pays dividends. Angelina Shit Ton blends together noise, hardcore and death metal, with excellent results, balancing the band’s catchy and caustic elements extremely well. Barracuda Cemeteries, a much thicker and more imposing piece of music, initially acts as a continuation of this style, but alters to a swampier rock sound with a powerful swagger and imaginative guitar work, ebbing and flowing between lighter and heavier parts to close this record on a song that’s every bit as unpredictable as the note it began on.
The band’s self-identification as “alternative grindcore” is actually quite a fitting moniker for their abrasive and meandering style, as it’s clear that SHIVERBOARD are drawing from a far wider range of influences than the staple heavyweights of grindcore and powerviolence. There’s touches of a vast array of music on here, from outright noise to alt-rock to even the occasional element of post-hardcore and the catchier end of punk, which lends this whole album a distinctive and unique feel. It’s hard to think of another grind act that is writing music this broad in its scope and imaginative in its intensity. Over the course of this and many of their earlier releases, the band have managed to carve out an impressive niche for themselves, and hopefully albums like this will gain far wider attention in the future, because SHIVERBOARD are genuinely doing something that stands head and shoulders above much of the pack.
Rating: 9/10
Hacksaw Morissette is out now via Wolves Records.
Like SHIVERBOARD on Facebook.