ALBUM REVIEW: Ropes – SIBIIR
One of the best things about hardcore is its maleability. How easily it can have its punk rock DNA taken and moulded round nearly any frame. The same cannot be said for the other genre SIBIIR take most of their influences from. Black metal is a hostile and feral genre, that when utilised correctly, can create some stunning atmospheres and some truly savage music. Previously bands like OATHBREAKER have been able to prove what post-hardcore can offer to the black metal genre, and bands like THE INFERNAL SEA have also proven there is worth in mining the vein. So with their latest album, Ropes, Norway’s own answer to blackened hardcore have stepped their game up.
SIBIIR had already established themselves amongst the blackened musical movement with their debut, but where bands like MØL got more attention from the wider audience, SIBIIR simply went back to their creative place. There is a real sense of primal energy that comes with Ropes as a whole piece of work, and it’s thanks to the multiple influences that make each song unique yet still distinctly SIBIIR. From the opening black metal tirade of Leeches, to the clear CELTIC FROST influence on Worlds Apart, there clear aspects where SIBIIR has allowed some musical history to flow directly through them. The songs evolve and mould, benefiting from the bass heavy mix and also the powerful double guitar attack that thickens the sound out even when the riffs are razor sharp and cold as ice.
Despite taking clear musical direction from bands as black as WATAIN, there are still patchworks of hardcore punk woven deeply into the SIBIIR DNA, and they still shine through. For The Few is a distinct, bouncing rager of a song that also bears an obvious message of social and class separation. The song is a pit inciting time that jumps from traditional blast beats to a thunderous, classically post hardcore chorus that is easy to imagine going down a treat in a live setting. The vocals do their bit for the most part, but aren’t the stand out by any stretch. The vocals feel like they sit too far in the middle of the road between wretched scream and hardcore shout, resulting in something that is neither here nor there. Despite this, when backed up on Transparent Lives, and when paired with a slightly more stripped back sound, the vocals begin to show what they can do to elevate the complex SIBIIR sound.
The best thing about Ropes, and about SIBIIR in general, is the amalgamation of so much coming together in a distinct and well handled way. With a clear bedrock of Norwegian inspired black metal, there is an odorous flavour of thrash coming through on the verses of The Silent Repent, a pungent stench of death metal on the closing Old Patterns, all wrapped up in post hardcore song structures that allow room for the songs to grow. Ropes is a varied and unique album that features no two songs sounding even vaguely the same. SIBIIR have taken the chance to prove just how deep their creative well goes with both hands, and it is definitely a journey worth taking for anyone who was even tickled by what the aforementioned OATHBREAKER, MØL, and THE INFERNAL SEA have been brewing up. Ropes will have you interested from start to finish, and will give you a million reasons to re-listen to it.
Rating: 8/10
Ropes is out now via Fysisk Format.
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