ALBUM REVIEW: Stumbling Through The Walls – Hiraki
HIRAKI describe Stumbling Through The Walls as a “sonic assault to accompany the inevitable fact that our world is sick.“ With that in mind, we weren’t exactly expecting an indie-pop record. Even so, the second full-length from the Danish noise rock trio is still seriously and staggeringly abrasive. It’s a record which sits in the same tradition as the sheer noisy terror of the likes of DAUGHTERS, THE BODY and UNIFORM. The results are just as intense and intimidating as any of those bands.
The album starts as it means to go on with opener Common Fear’s bursts of harsh electronic noise. Vocalist Jon Gotlev is quick to get in listeners’ faces in particular. Spurred on by the growing chaos behind him, he sounds utterly deranged here. It’s definitely hard to believe his repeated, tortured screams of “It’s gonna be alright” and “Everything’s fine” which round out the track. These are echoed back to him by THE ARMED’s Cara Drolshagen – one of several guests on the record. Gotlev, who also handles the album’s synths and ‘noise’, remains a stand-out throughout. On every track, he carries himself with an unhinged, attention-grabbing charisma that keeps listeners hanging on to his every word.
After a great start in Common Fear and the equally maniacal Wonderhunt which follows, the band up their game even further on third track Proto Skin. A firm highlight, this has a driving, moody feel while still maintaining a viciously noisy edge. It even becomes quite grand and expansive at points, while never losing its in-your-face savagery. Fourth track New Standards is similarly excellent. With guest vocals from Rikke Fink, it runs along for the most part as a sadistic rumbling trip-hop piece. Eventually, it sees the band kick into a level of crushing, suffocating industrial noise that would make GODFLESH proud. Fink makes for a particularly dour and captivating presence on this one, repeating a mantra of “Don’t think about it/I just thought about it”, as well as providing the brilliant lyric: “Eternal shitstains of a spotless mind.”
While Proto Skin and New Standards may be something of a peak, the quality remains high throughout. Fifth track Blossom Cuts is definitely the closest the trio come to anything ‘metal’ on the record. It features some driving riffing and even shows flashes of post-metal expanse before ending in a short burst of THE ARMED-esque chaos. Next, Mirror Stalker’s menacing one-note stomp acts as an anchor amid the band’s sporadic eruptions of frenzied noise. Gotlev shines again on Peach Lung after that, where there are even hints of melody amid the carnage. These tracks definitely vary from one to the other, but they also share a common thread of intensity and quality.
Consistent though it is, there’s no getting around the fact that Stumbling Through The Walls is hard work. The band’s penchant for dissonance and noise won’t be for everyone, but then again this kind of music never is. Fortunately, HIRAKI are merciful enough to keep the runtime to a lean 32 minutes. This is a sensible choice. It ensures that the harshness of their music never wears off, while the band manage to get out before it becomes too much. The production helps too. While definitely capturing the band in all their manic glory, it also allows listeners to hear the album’s finer details and intricacies. It’s this which makes Stumbling Through The Walls a record which definitely bears repeated listening.
The record ends on another high with The Alarmist. Far from taking their foot off the gas on the home straight, this one even teeters towards the more chaotic metallic hardcore of a band like CONVERGE. It reaches a noisy conclusion which sees Gotlev repeatedly asking listeners: “Where’s the moral when you need it?”. As it ends, these words are left to reverberate around our ears, and as hard and as harsh as this record may be, it surely won’t be long before you want to listen to it all over again.
The bar is already set pretty high for what HIRAKI attempt on Stumbling Through The Walls, especially if you look at a band like DAUGHTERS. With this record though, the trio don’t feel that far off. It’s definitely an evolution from its predecessor, and if the band can build on this further going forward then we can safely expect to hear their name come up a lot more in conversations alongside the boundary-pushing acts that so clearly inspire them.
Rating: 8/10
Stumbling Through The Walls is set for release on April 9th via Nefarious Industries.
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