ALBUM REVIEW: Triangle Unicode – We Are Magonia
With the aesthetics of a classic horror and the audible sensation of fear and excitement wrapped into one, WE ARE MAGONIA raise goosebumps and roofs alike with Triangle Unicode. The French trio are best known for fusing rock and metal with elements of electronic and dance music. This mix, delightfully dubbed “cyberpunk”, has captured the bleeding hearts of rockers around the world, and the album works with this to bring the band’s unique catchy sound to the masses and spark up the imagination in the meantime.
Opening with Written In Blood and title track Triangle Unicode, the story kicks off with a double-act dance/metal fusion. It gets the heart beating, gets the blood flowing, and makes the mind wander into darkness. Images of dark forests and blood-stained greenery are conjured. We picture a world in the perils of war, or even a metallic uprising; both valid images and possible influences for the sound contained within the record.
As the album plays on, the controlled chaos feels less controlled. Organisation no longer exists. The system is in collapse. Each and every melody plays along to this concept. These seemingly random sounds take on the representation for losing one’s grip on life and reality. There is no plan. As each track begins with a softer misleading intro, it doesn’t take long for the simulation to glitch and the pieces to break apart.
Go To The Devil is the track that demands the most attention and the highest praise. Being one of the longer tracks at almost four and a half minutes long, it’s a journey in itself almost. With one of the catchier beats, more fun breakdowns, and the greatest chance to dance and mosh simultaneously within the timespan it allows, it’s one of the more memorable tracks within Triangle Unicode – one that tells the story clearest, and one that sets the ears, the mind and the soul on fire. If there is one song within this album that lives and breathes the “darksynth” attitude the band pushes, this is it. The prince of darkness says it more than anyone else could.
WE ARE MAGONIA are bringing together the two polarising ends of music, in the eyes of most alternative people: pure dirty metal, and fun experimental electronic. It’s a fusion being played with now more than ever before. There is a slow acceptance of deviations in metal. As this continues, rock and metal will only open and spread and grow as it has done in decades before, so embrace the cyberpunk future with WE ARE MAGONIA.
Rating: 7/10
Triangle Unicode is out now via NewRetroWave Records.
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