Hey there, tech fiends. It's that time of the week again. Before we dive into today's focus, here's the usual weekly reminder that if you're looking for even more sick bands to hear, all prior editions of this series can be perused here.
At the beginning of the year, there’s always a few releases I didn’t have time to cover before the year ended that still deserve some love. Some of them dropped so close to the end of December they likely passed unnoticed for most of us. Let’s rectify that for at least one gem in that category today.
Trenchlung is a fairly new act whose members hail from Windsor, Ontario, and Australia. The band dropped their debut album, Hiraeth, on December 21st and I found out about it shortly after when their drummer Tyson messaged me. Tyson was the drummer for Grindmother from 2016 to 2017 and started Trenchlung in 2018 with some friends.
For a debut album from a very new band, Hiraeth is an incredibly mature and unique sounding release the likes of which most new acts struggle to deliver so early on. The band’s take on tech-death is one that draws widely from outside run-of-the-mill genre tropes and influences in order to put their own stamp on things. At its core, Hiraeth deftly unites stark black metal, chaotic mathcore, and ferocious dissonant tech-death into an unholy mindfuck unlike much of anything else I’ve heard.
Listing the band’s influences might also help give you a more accurate picture of whether Hiraeth is something for you or not. They cite influences ranging from Ulcerate, Gorguts, Dillinger Escape Plan, Meshuggah, Blood Has Been Shed, The End, Coalesce, and Candiria.
I’m always a bit more excited by groups with an unorthodox approach paired with a chaotic, heavy as fuck and riding an endless pitch-black flair. All of which Trenchlung – Hiraeth offers in spades across eight world annihilating songs invading your ears in a swift 28-minute long run time.
Fans of dissonant tech-death, black metal (not “blackened”) infused tech-death, and mathcore influenced tech-death, Hiraeth is an album you’re certain to love and desire to spin endlessly. If you like what you hear, Hiraeth can be ordered through the Trenchlung Bandcamp page. You can follow the group over on the Trenchlung Facebook Page.
