Lavair and Through Night Skie's industrial efforts as shrieking violet puts out a debut record that's lyrically potent, but musically haphazard.
After Lavair's haphazard throwaway project 'Liminal Soul' from last year, the next project he has under the Shrieking Violet name with lofi ambient and metal musician Through Night Skies is going to be a… Nihilistic industrial record?
A bit of a surprise for sure, as I have covered Lavair's projects that plop through different strains of electronica and rock with variations of success and misses. But the direction doesn't feel shocking as he had done his darker and murkier tangents on his sophomore record.
For once, Lavair and Through Night Skies' debut project under this name unraveled something unsightly. That sort of dread that might be found in fractured relationships and how it will slither in the mind. Where hollowed screams do not bounce off in a place that you once called home, where the dim hope flickers for a short span of time, and where there is this yearning for a suicidal victory, either from the protagonist themself or to their very close friend. The writing showcased a genuine picture of this dread, paired too with the album cover that feels like you're coming home to a place that you're staying in, but still have fears of those memories.
But as the writing sure reaches out in strides, the production somehow stumbles to get there. Admittedly, this kind of lo-fi industrial production is not new and while Shrieking Violet is using it to paint the scene, the efforts put in feel like they’re pulling things back. Droning and shambling soundscapes in courtesy of Through Night Skies’ contribution to the sound design do add to this atmosphere, as the murky textures and mixing from the sometimes dry instrumental tones make for an album that might strangle you from how these tones and sounds get clustered together. And when it comes to a performance that requires pulling your guts out to make this kind of production and writing stand out, Lavair has definitely delivered in spades, whether that be the churning shouts and the exasperated yelps all throughout this record, even if his delivery on some spoken word passages can still need some work.
And speaking of, there is a feeling where the flow can feel haphazard due to how some of the songs are structured: some linger and lean on slower ambient makeups, and some linger on blasts of blurry and rumbling noise. And referring to the production feeling like Shrieking Violet is pulling things back a bit, while the melodies that crop up on some of these songs pummel through with the driving guitars and drums, the way they’re mixed and tuned can make them sound thin and powerless especially when they seem to be back in the mix rather than being on the forefront. And that is possibly the factor why this record doesn’t stick as it should, the lack of dynamics. Where in the mix, they could break that blurry barrier and allow the instruments and screams to show their teeth and edge, and in the album structure, there could’ve been some tracks where there are mixes of those ambient and noisy textures meshed together, making them play out in interesting contrasts.
And that really hurts this record because besides those restraints, Shrieking Violet still manages to bring out a crushing experience underneath it all. ‘running’ pummels through with the guitars shredding across the track amidst Lavair’s increasingly breaking growls, ‘pure vitriol’ with those pummeling breakdowns that gets better with the tight flow of the song, ‘hesitation wounds’ with its stable mid-tempo rumbles from the bass and drums that is accompanied with a distorted guitar weaving across the track, ‘wrack and ruin’ with its rumbling soundscapes as it obfuscates Lavair delivering a frightening spoken word, ‘mercy kill’ with its lowkey noise sweeps accompanied with dry but off-kilter acoustics and Lavair’s defeated vocals getting more cryptic, ‘...and away they went’ with the dreamlike ambience and twittering drum patterns, and ‘we walk under the floating mountain’ that may as well be the brightest song of the record with its soft acoustic passages, Lavair’s hushed delivery, and woozy synths peppered around the song.
This record is still commendable for as much as it does stumble on certain passages. The writing is gripping and the melodies punch through, but it gets suffocated as the structure, mixing, and dynamics do not pan out that much. If you can tune yourself into this atmosphere that Shrieking Violet has procured, there is much to appreciate here. For Shrieking Violet themselves, their shrieks can definitely be heard but sometimes, those shrieks can break through the barrier and put up more of a wail.
Favorite Tracks: mercy kill, running, pure vitriol, hesitation ground, wreck and ruin, we walk under the floating mountain, …and away they went
Least Favorite Track: your kill, my kill