Not enough grimy hardcore in your life yet this year? You're in luck. Copenhagen's Église have got you totally covered. Flying straight out of nowhere with a crushing self titled record, this mob bring the crushing Converge jams just as adequately as they continue the trend of Scandinavian artists who marry post-metal and sludge so impressively.
Warts and all, this is a beast of an album that whips through genres faster than bigots buying tickets for a Trump rally. The guitar and bass tones here just must be heard to be appreciated. Gnarly and coarse, even nastier than the wretched vocals in places. Fantastic stuff, listen below.
Église definitely appeal to the part of me that craves new music from Bannon, Ballou and co. They adopt a lot of the same stylistic traits and sounds of the Boston legends' earlier material as well as the more open-ended aspects of more recent tunes. The Converge comparison is low hanging fruit though, as the band smash through some truly unique and feral tracks like the raging "Light Conqueror" and blistering opener "The Clouds"; the clean guitar chord at the start of "Have I Become Hell" is exactly the same as the opening chord of "Precipice" though! Alas, all is forgivable when everything else is this intensely jarring. Great chaotic hardcore with a gloomy twist AND it's pay what you want. Make mine a double.
