Snowman - 'We Are The Plague'
First taste of the hotly anticipated new record from Perth's
Snowman has them going all feral. Nothing new there. We are talking about a band whose cheapo video for '
Swimming With Sharks' featured them running round in a forest at night with flaming torches, half-naked and covered in dirt.
On 'We Are The Plague' their "vampy" melodrama shtick of yore seems to be giving way to a creepier, pounding dissonance, a la
Liars. In fact there's a lot of Liars
Drums Not Dead in this track, from the focus on spare drums and tribal percussion, to the falsetto vocals and dubby bass lines. Not to mention general menace. That
Drones tour's rubbed off on them.
For all the tension and release it's a shame you can't understand what they're singing about. With the record titled
The Horse The Rat and The Swan, laced with multiple mentions of infections and diseases, it seems there's an arc or theme to the record. Just can't hear it yet. Maybe with a band so adept at creating rich imagery through their music it doesn't matter. Let's hope the album will tell.
The band relocates to Europe soon after the record comes out. Stay off the
motorbikes kids.