With the 70’s retro rock revival in full steam it was always a matter of time before the scene moved on to the 80’s.
So here we have Fenriz approved Beastmilk from Finland leading the way, playing a self-styled brand of “apocalyptic post-punk” which lovingly reveres/rips of (delete as see fit) the 1980’s new wave and post-punk sounds of Sisters Of Mercy, Joy Division, The Cure et al.
Now seeing as they wear their influences on their sleeve so blatantly and my own dalliance with this style of music never really got any further than Fields Of Nephilim, why am I surprised to find myself enjoying this so much?
Songwriting.
Pure and simply great songwriting with perfect pacing as the urgent jagged guitars and clean dramatic vocal delivery of opening track ‘Death Reflects Us’ testifies with a performance that buries in your head with its fantastical poetic imagery, and there’s no letup in momentum with the following ‘The Wind Blows Through Their Skulls’ and ‘Genocidal Crush’ possibly being two of my favourite songs this year with their more danceable grooves and big infectious choruses.
Eight out of ten tracks last no longer than 3 minutes keeping the high tempo dancefloor groove and mixing up the various reference points so that they hook you in to the theme but ensure they don’t linger too long for the familiarity to outstay their welcome, the two longer tracks are slower paced ballads suitably positioned in the middle and end with the latter ‘Strange Attractors’ providing an interesting sucker punch of an emotionally charged ending.
One other reference point that cropped up for me was defunct punk rockers Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster especially during ‘Surf The Apocalypse’. I was also pretty much convinced that ‘Love In A Cold World’ was a cover but apparently it’s not, make of that what you will.
If you are of a certain age you may wonder what the fuss is having heard it all before but if you’re a fan of great songwriting in rock music Climax will definitely be worth your time.
