Untitled Document

To fully rock, you need to harness the power of the riff. If you forge your sound out of molten riff, you will truly rock. Macrocosmica, then, are the kings and queen of rock. Equal parts Black Sabbath's 70s metal lunacy and Shellac's 90s hardcore insanity, this line-up's second record explores the dark recesses of Brendan O'Hare's frazzled mind, with wife and bassist Cerwyss sharing vocal duties. The precision of the rhythym section is carved from the strongest bedrock, providing the strongest foundation for the riff - guitar and bass in unison, meshing perfectly with the drums. Gordon Brady's four dimensional lead guitar is at his ever-inventive best - nanoscopic shards slicing through; sine, cosine and tangent waves of wah cutting the sound apart. And the songwriting, often the antithesis of metal, is even better than on 2002's Art of the Black Earth - opener 'Crater Style' exploding from a single point of sci-fi noise into a psychotic, military precision hardcore stomp, before settling back into a gentle refrain, and resolving in a pulsing crescendo. 'The Casket's' seamless switching between acoustic introspection and bruising emo intensity. While there are only 8 tracks on the album, it feels like so many more, such is the level of invention - think what would've happened if Brian Wilson invented hardcore. If there were any justice in the world, Macrocosmica would be bigger than the Darkness. And it would be justice for all. (JET)