Old Gray

Slow Burn (2017)

RENALDO69

If you're familiar with Old Gray, then you'd know how achingly personal their bRand of screamo/post-hardcore/skramz is. No surprise given that Cam Boucher's engineering things. His work fronting Sorority Noise is something that's changed the modern emo landscape as seen with Joy, Departed and here, he sets up a big tease of what's to come for the next Sorority Noise album in terms of storytelling. "No Halo" dropped last week and it follows in the vein of this Old Gray record, not music-wise, but lyrically. Slow Burn here is another bleak, personal outlook on a world that continues to violently tear apart love, loss and life at every turn.

From the La Dispute-esque "A Song for Zach" to the explosive Mogwai/Godspeed You! Black Emperor vibe of "On Earth, As It Is In Heaven" you can tell they've got much more direction in what can best be described as a vulnerable, fearless assault on your ear. All with hearts and hands held open. "Communion" and "Blunt Trauma" set the tone earlier on, in a way that fans of old-era Pianos Become The Teeth and The Saddest Landscape can relate to. Amid this beautiful chaos, the buzzy and relentless guitars, and of course, the pianos that quiet the rage that Boucher feels inside, it's apparent that the best way to revolt against that machine called depression, is indeed to attack it square on. And that's what Slow Burn is -- as repetitive as it gets at times in its turmoil -- it's very poetic, heavy and heartbreaking.