ALBUM REVIEW: Slash And Burn – GHLOW

Swedish-Russian duo GHLOW release their debut album Slash And Burn, mixing together punk and electronic sounds to produce their own style. Members Emille de Blanche and Nikolay Evdokimov both have previous experience in the music industry, and formed GHLOW based off of a chance encounter. This album surrounds the idea of change, with Evdokimov saying “it’s about starting again. You might be chopping things down, or setting fire to something, but that’s a reset – something positive comes out of the flames.”

Opening track, Not Fit For This, starts off with a cool techno beat build up that then transitions into some well paired guitars and vocals that radiate atmosphere. An echo effect has been added to some parts of the vocals which adds to the depth that they had in the first place, and makes for quite a mellow sounding song. The tempo is relatively consistent throughout the whole song, but there is a small change up in speed near the end, which makes for a nice effect. The vocals are quite impactful, whilst not being heavy, and have a strong presence in the song.

The song, Mess With Me, again gives us this hip hop style electronic beat that compliments the guitar style chosen. The vocals used in this track are comparable with the one prior, and the general tones of the song are quite similar. There are no drastic changes/ drops throughout this song, but it is enjoyable to listen to due to its mix of electronic elements with cool riffs.

Hold On, also delivers on the techno beats during the intro to the song, but some really cool almost synth sounds are used to compliment this part of GHLOW‘s style. The lyrics for all the songs on this album hold strong meanings which are open to interpretation, but there is definitely an emphasis on the music itself rather than the vocals in most of the tracks, in terms of quantity. There is a really interesting change up in tone of the guitars towards the latter half of this song, which is surprising but welcomed.

Lastly, Spit, delivers some deep guitar riffs and atmospheric vocals which blend together seamlessly and create a powerful track. There is also a really interesting change up in beat half way through the song which changes the feel of it entirely. The thing that stands out in the majority of the tracks on this album is that the lyrics whilst impactful, are limited and most of the songs has a similar feel to them. This isn’t bad but does make for a less defined area when going from track to track.

Slash and Burn contains multiple well put together and interesting songs that hold a lot of impact, but it lacks variation. The songs work well when thinking about the sound of the album as a whole, but a bigger range of different techniques and tempos could have improved this release and made it more enjoyable. However, for their debut album, GHLOW definitely shows potential.

Rating: 7/10

Slash and Burn is out now via PNKSLM.

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