Los Disidentes Del Sucio Motel | website | facebook | twitter | bandcamp |
Released on September 9, 2016 via Ripple Music
Wow, I didn’t expect this. Los Disidentes‘ most recent album, Arcane, released in 2013, was a solid if not particularly distinctive collection of stoner rock. And Human Collapse is their first since signing with Ripple Music, a label largely associated with sounds firmly in the “smoke a bowl and riff till dawn” realm of heavy.
So far so matchy-matchy. Until the needle drops (on spectacular, limited edition gold and black spatter vinyl, we hasten to add).
And we find that the French quintet threw the script away by creating this massive, angst-ridden collection of anthemic monsters, retaining a few of their desert fried-roots, but adding baubles like a knack for a hook or clever breakdown, progressive elements and a shiny, near-radio-friendly production sheen.
And the whole collection is bound together by a concept, which, in a nutshell (I admit my eyes often glaze over with “big statements” in metal – the whole genre is a little too preposterous to adequately convey a socio-political stance) depicts a post-apocalyptic world, with problems that the present one can sadly relate to.
And you know what? It’s damn good.
It begins with the sound of a windswept desert and a spaghetti western-style scratchy guitar on ‘7pm Choice’, but the images of squeaky saloon doors are swiftly brushed aside once ‘Decision’ kicks into gear, planted in modern metal territory. It’s bombastic, straight-faced and just on the right side of clinical.
‘Departure’ is another stadium-ready fist-raiser, which I have to confess is not usually my listening choice, but such is the quality of songwriting, it darn well won me over. The same happened with ‘Trip’ and its super-catchy (and rather high-pitched) chorus, which is worlds away from the band’s beginnings as a stoner outfit.
If the opening four songs aren’t enough evidence, the sublime and dark centrepiece, ‘Border’ hammers home how far removed this album is from Los Disidentes Del Sucio Motel’s prior output (and how forward thinking this release is compared to much of the rest of Ripple’s catalogue), with its anthemic chorus delivering a powerful message with a thump to the face, and its metamorphosis from strident rocker to prog epic in the space of seven minutes.
‘Community’ releases the tension wrought by ‘Borders’ by presenting itself as the closest thing to a ballad I have admitted to enjoying since, well, a long time ago. ‘Rebirth’ veers a little too close to James Hetfield-style bellowing to like unconditionally, but things are put back on track with ‘Determination’, which musically is nearer to LDDSM’s sun-fried roots. That said, the chorus is a bona fide earworm.
The final song, ‘5pm Arrival’ provides a fitting, if long, closure to the album with a classic desert riff buried under harmonies, time changes and bleak lyrics, before everything fades out barring a single, stark guitar. It’s an ending to be expected, from an album that is completely unexpected.
