EP REVIEW: ______ – Agvirre

Since their spectacular 2020 debut EP Silence, Manchester-based post-everythingers AGVIRRE have been pushing the boundaries to tell visceral stories on hard hitting subjects. That aforementioned debut zeroed in on living with mental illness, and now on sophomore EP______ (pronounced Hidden), the trio have teamed up with bonafide post-metal legends for a spellbinding release.

Recorded by Joe Clayton, guitarist of PIJN and LEECHED, and mastered by none other than CULT OF LUNA’s Magnus Lindberg, ______ looks at how struggles with mental health affect us in a wider social context. Across three tracks and 22 enthralling minutes, AGVIRRE make the listener feel every agonising emotion in what is already standing out as one of the most introspective yet rewarding listens of the year.

Urtica In Glass builds slowly over a bed of audio from the 2019 Zayd Atkinson incident, in which the student was the victim of blatant racial profiling at the hands of Colorado police officer John Smyly. As the confrontation swells, the track explodes to raucous life, and vocalist Chris ‘Frenchie’ French’s guttural yells manage to sound cathartic and frustrated, hopeless and defiant, all at the same time. The track twists and turns through spaghetti western guitar lines, punishing percussive breaks and trumpets that rise and fall through major and minor phrases, all underpinned by a deeply unnerving backing vocal that is barely legible, but once you notice it, it’s hard to ignore.

For El Dorado, Whenever I May Find You continues the cinematic scale that sounds like HER NAME IS CALLA channelling the grand visions of ENNIO MORRICONE. Rich, overwhelming textures from bright horns and pummelling drums swirl with beautiful ferocity. The vocals sit further back in the mix, allowing the tornado of instrumentation to carry the listener through every stunning second, none of them wasted. It’s a gorgeous ending to the EP and one that sees the band flex their impressive musical prowess by lending an uplifting, almost jubilant undercurrent to such dark materials.

Each of these tracks runs for 10 minutes or thereabouts (and neatly tied together by a far shorter instrumental interlude), but there is so much perpetual motion that they feel just half as long. For such a heavy record, both in terms of subject and method, there’s an astounding ease in listening to ______. 

So two for two then for AGVIRRE on the EP front. What Silence did to set this trio up as a promising young up-start, ______ builds on emphatically. If they can keep up this trajectory they’re on, this could be a very special band indeed.

Rating: 8/10

______ is set for release on January 28th via Through Love Records/Surviving Sounds/Trepanation.

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