ALBUM REVIEW: Null – KEN Mode
“It was a mistake to ask me for help.” So sneers KEN MODE vocalist Jesse Matthewson in A Love Letter, the first track on the band’s latest full-length Null. It’s one of at least four menacing repeated lines that crop up in the opener alone, and it goes a long way to summing up much of the record to follow. This is a nasty, hate-filled album, as indeed you might expect if you’ve heard anything from the Canadian noise rockers’ stellar back catalogue. It uses a myriad of methods to visit cruelty upon its listeners, and, perhaps most of all through lyrics like that, it leaves them with a sense of unease that’s hard to shake.
In many ways, Null‘s pursuit and delivery of demented cacophony remains wholly true to who KEN MODE have been for over two decades now, but there are a few differences here, or at least one major one. Joining the band for the first time as a fully-fledged member is Kathryn Kerr, her talents used far more widely in comparison to the sporadic saxophone contributions she made to 2018’s Loved. As well as plenty more bursts of maniacal sax, Kerr adds noisy buzzing synths, creeping pianos, and additional percussion and backing vocals to the band’s already tar-thick sound, with the results resembling what we can only imagine it feels like to be tucked under a blanket of lead and nails.
Having always counted chaotic hardcore masters like BOTCH and CONVERGE at least somewhere among their peers, KEN MODE have no trouble firing off tight, tortured frenzies of their own in the likes of Throw Your Phone In The River and But They Respect My Tactics, but it’s arguably the band’s ability to paint in so many different shades of extremity that really sets them apart on Null. The Tie arrives right in between the aforementioned tracks for example and centres on an abrasive industrial throb that’s just as oppressive as anything the band have to offer at their wildest. Closer Unresponsive delivers similarly, if not with even more force, while elsewhere Not My Fault grabs its listeners with an inescapably filthy groove that makes loads of sense considering how quick Matthewson was to praise the MELVINS when we spoke to him for an upcoming feature.
Null‘s crowning moment however comes in the form of its sixth and longest track. Sprawling across a full ten-minute runtime, Lost Grip is a patient, dynamic piece that borrows liberally from sludge and post-metal to stand tall even on an album of consistent quality. Again, it’s anchored by repeated vocal hooks – a term used very generously here – to ensure it leaves a lasting impression. Lines like “I don’t believe that you mean well” and “We deserve this” hang heavy as the track moves from a rumbling, bass-driven first half to an eruption of squealing guitar leads and sludgy riffs before ending as it began in bleak and defeated despondency.
Perhaps most remarkable of all is that even though a 35-minute runtime is hardly a huge ask, Null never gets caught plodding in its own misery and mire. This is noise rock made by masters of their craft – a status KEN MODE have long been assured of at this point. It’s as effective and affecting at its most chaotic as it is at its most methodical, and as the band bring the album to a close with one final mantra of “Forgotten, erased / Unresponsive, replaced, abandoned”, there’s no doubt this one will be sticking with us for some time. Oh, and we didn’t even mention that it’s the first in a two-part album arc whose second instalment is already fully mastered – bring it on.
Rating: 8/10
Null is set for release on September 23rd via Artoffact Records.
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