‘Creep In’ builds a kind of theatrical Hammer Horror math-rock vibe before halting, chopping and changing a number of times into alternately mega-heavy bottom-end riffage and a tinkling chime. In itself, no bad thing, but the Glasgow act make hard work of it. The big, bottom-end favouring guitar sound is too thick, while the contrasting spindly picked guitars are on the thin side, but the real issue is how well the multiple sections fit together – or not. The stop/start ‘Dudeman’ is better and the last track, ‘Basehead’ is the solidest and most coherently-formed, but again, some of the hooks and details simply feel bolted on rather than flowing naturally from the compositional tapestry.
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Obviously, math-rock is supposed to jolt and jar and confound the listener with its sudden turns, but all too often, it feel like they’ve just stopped the tape and spliced another section in just because. It’s not a problem that it’s been done before (although this is the most gothic-sounding math-rock this reviewer has heard to date), but that it’s all been done better.
Cutty’s Gym Online
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