2013/02/18

Aleska - Mariesena - Bears Split



01. Aleska - ...And We Are Not Afraid Of Eternity
02. Aleska - Friends And Foes
03. Mariesena - About Jealous Stars And Her Emerald Eyes
04. Mariesena - About My Temper And The Ship As A Metaphor
05. Mariesena - About Dying Relations
06. Bears - Fill Me
07. Bears - Rust

With each progressive stage of this screamo three-way split, the end product is roughened, coarsened up, like a sparkling gem being sharpened backwards, so all the gore and gruesome bits are left at the end prickling under its raw skin. We blast off with a nine minute epic from Aleska, pulling demented math-rock rhythm and off-kilter melody quickly away with tremendous screams and expansive guitars, switching and chopping tempos and textures with ease. Mariesena grabs the already-bruised and beaten baton with claws. They add a notch DIY to their shorter, chaotic, hardcore-hearted songs, letting the noisy bass take charge, and leaving disparate screams sounding like sandpaper. Bears go even further, rip the baton out of Mariesena's claws, and make guitar-driven songs recorded - quite probably - like the inside of a car exhaust, if that exhaust was filled with intense pain and great song writing. Aleska round off the split with a last effort which reminds me - of all things - a little of doom metal, which acts as a suitable conclusion to a quirkily done - but most certainly excellent - split, increasingly raw and ravaged yet not short on passion at any stage.

Reviewed by Beth.

Aleska starts off this three-way split, and their two songs add up to about eleven minutes. The first two minute offering is a seething blast of hardcore fury with a little bit of what I interpreted as black metal influence thrown in for good measure. This intense blast sets up the next nine minute track, which starts a little more subtly. Clean guitars bob and noodle, complemented perfectly by the jumping bass line, creating a mathy little texture that endures until the song explodes into the stylings of the first track once more. This song is a little more grandiose, and parts are drawn out long enough to become settled with the progression before changing on a dime, sometimes switching moods or tempos expertly. It's difficult to keep a nine minute song attention grabbing, but the drastic mood shift down to a clean sung passage keeps Aleska's contribution to this split engaging. The Bears offering is a little more straightforward, but it doesn't lack for it. The drums are tense and driving, and the desperate vocal stylings on the first song 'Fill Me' are well placed. Their two songs don't differ greatly from each other, both being moody slabs of what I would call screamo influenced hardcore, but they definitely throw riffs and slightly more melodic passages in to keep things interesting. The Mariesena songs close out this split, and having heard the previous bands’ tracks, these songs aren't a great surprise. Parts of the vocal delivery have a The Saddest Landscape type quality to them, in that some of the quieter parts mix screams and spoken words in a style that seems so desperate and anguished that the singer might break down. These songs are a good contribution to the split, and will satisfy fans of heavy screamo and melodic clean guitar passages.

Reviewed by Justin.

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