It’s no secret that post-punk and all its respective tropes have seen a new lease of life in recent years; whether that’s lead to a saturation of new artists or opportunity to exercise the genre’s finest aspects, it has certainly harboured bands worth following. Detroit based band Protomartyr are one example that keep producing urgent and melodic material that are more than just smart punk records. Never conventional in their musical approach, they even did their release show on a riverboat in Detroit with METZ. ‘Under Control of Official Right’ and ‘The Agent Intellect’ were both exceptional showcases for the band’s awry approach to instrumentation and song writing, with the latter playing host to some of their defining tracks. The latest effort, Relatives in Descent marks their debut on the renowned Domino Records, seeing the return of their signature lattice of ringing guitar riffs and intricate drumming. Only this time there’s an undeniable weight of dread, emphasized by vocalist Joe Casey’s lyrical themes of truth and uncertainty.
The band have always perfected making a track warming in its melodic moments yet constantly unsettling; opener ‘A Private Understanding’ does just this, with the build toward an explosive chorus carried by thick guitars and the eventual crescendo where Casey repeats “she is trying to meet you” over swelling distortion. This sensation of uncertainty that the instrumentation captures is clear again on ‘The Chuckler’, where Alex Leonard’s drumming provides the sharp back drop to even sharper guitar leads that seem to be endlessly building to something that isn’t there; as a listener, you’re held suspended until its collapse. Protomartyr are unparalleled in how they can take a typical instrumental formula and make it unpredictable, as if it’s thinking for itself. Casey’s croons mirror this as he delivers strange yet relevant and timely lines that come from a place of borderline humour and total apathy toward the world we live in.
Despite the ambiguous nature of Casey’s lyrical content, you can gain a real sense that the concept of truth in modern life has dissipated, or at the very least warped, in some of what’s said. Even in describing the album’s themes, Casey stated that “People have never been more sceptical, and there’s no shared reality. Maybe there never was.” This is essentially an ideal synopsis for Relatives in Descent, with tracks like ‘Here Is the Thing’ demonstrating a string of lyrical quirks that hint at something perhaps undecipherable. One certainty, however, is the loose commentary on the western world’s bigotry in the form of leaders in tall towers (I doubt I need to say who I mean) on the track ‘Up the Tower.’ A track clearly describing a revolt, the instrumentation is mechanical in the introduction; pounding drums and a sporadic isolated guitar riff, each building to chorus refrains of “knock it down” and “throw him out.” The lyrics on this record teeter on needing to be decoded and nodding toward an uncertainty that we all know and feel, something Protomartyr manage to pull off seamlessly.
Without digging too deep into the albums themes and meanings, it’s obvious that this record is one of the bands finest and darkest to date. Through its grey and gloomy atmosphere there’s even moments of beauty on tracks like ‘Night-Blooming Cereus’ and the closer ‘Half Sister.’ Relatives in Descent is the sort of modern punk record I find refreshing and engaging, whilst also delivering thoughtful themes that are more than relevant. It’s the desperate sound of people’s dissatisfaction with the state of the world and a commentary on an end in sight, perhaps better summed up in a lyric from ‘The Chuckler’ – “Clouds of poison in the sky and poison in the soil/Lord, how I wish there was a better ending to this joke.”
