This debut album by Oakland California's Antler Family was delayed by all of the trauma of the last few years but is finally with us on Antler coloured vinyl, or beige to you and me. The band are fronted by opera school drop-out Mia Dean whose plays alongside Stark Raving Brad, Tom Dean and Tom Flynn to whip up a dark brooding Goth Noise Punk and pagan metal album.
The A-side opens with Roses a slow building, pained song with dark hued guitars with a squiggly solo over Stark Raving Brad's steady building drums, leading us into the darkness.
Setting Eyes is clattering Indie rock with a goth-tinged edge, as Mia tries to get away from the angst-ridden environment.
Captive has the caged animal dread many of us felt through the pandemic, while feeling like a weird cross of Typhoon and Salem 66, as Tom Flynn's guitar tries to break down the walls, does Mia want to escape or would she rather you imprison her.
Bring Me Back My Love is begging pleading hoping they might return, while the down tuned guitars and bass battle with the insistent cymbals.
Widows Call is a singular scream from within the darkness of loss, slow embittered folk song turned into goth funereal eulogy, the longing for the lost love, the adventures not completed as distended guitars ache with loss.
The b side opens with I Don't Wanna/Black Hole Love a slow twisted love song, I do hope he gives in to Mia's imprecations as the music falls apart, more pleading more needing, can she make you feel it, I hope so, as no matter what she's lost in that Black Hole of love lust an desire.
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King Tide starts slowly over Tom Dean's piano line as this tale unfolds other elements are added, as Mia fights the passions of the night once more. The sadness at the songs core are abandoning themselves to the relentless waves that keep crashing in.
The album closes with It Don't Rain Anymore, a song that feels like a sick joke in London, as I can't remember the last day we went without rain. But in California they have the opposite problem, so they are trying to find the rain making frequencies, the ones that make clouds burst, over nearly 8 minutes of searching through the searing sounds, hoping to save the crops, with touches of the non-hard core bits of Little Hells sound. If only the heavens would open over California and let us have a few dry weeks in London.
Find out more at https://antlerfamily.bandcamp.com/album/antler-family https://tr.ee/P4IB0AP7GT https://www.facebook.com/theantlerfamily
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