Lickgoldensky "The Beautiful Sounds of..." CD
[Escape Artist]
Whew! Here's some completely abrasive and chaotic technical metalcore with some very subtle uses of melody and the most twisted Quicksand-esque post-hardcore riffing you'll ever hear, fronted by unrelenting vocal screams that sound like fucking sandpaper scraping across the inside of your throat. But hot damn, these guys are way, way, way better than a lot of other acts out there of a similar nature. The songs are tangible, the writing is forceful, they're not being wild and crazy just for the sake of it, etc. Just check out the excellent changeup of "Breakfast" as thundering bass pounds away and the easily approachable rhythm patterns are a welcome contrast to some of the other compositions. This drummer is a fucking madman, too. I can't believe it! He's fast as fuck, his fills are wicked, and the performance is fucking tighter than hell. Actually, the bassist is pretty fucking slick as well, so the rhythm section is an all around treat. My only real complaint about this record is that of the merely 22 minutes it boasts in running time, seven of them are spent on the not-so-eventful "South:thuos" (whereas most tracks are lucky to reach even two minutes). The "song" is a repetitive "jam" of sorts that would be heavy as a motherfucker were the doom-ish rhythms and hard-hitting percussion left to their own devices without the cackling vocal screams or torturously noisy guitar textures - both of which detract from the flow more than enough. As far as the production goes, I like that the bass is there and the vocals are mixed way back in with the music, so nothing is overly dominant. The mix is spacious and clear without any gaps. The only thing that bothers me a little bit is that the snare drum really sticks out. I love the kickback that the snare has, and as mentioned earlier the drumming is fucking intense, but the way that the snare just slices through everything can be a little bit of an annoyance from time to time. The bass drums have an odd sort of sound as well, but it's not bothersome. I'm just glad they sound natural. The layout looks very nice. The bleeding flowers may be somewhat typical, but they look better than average here, and thankfully have nothing to do with the band name or the lyrics (i.e. this is not a derivative, whiny, melodic metalcore album). I actually like the schizophrenic nature of the lyrics a lot. They're brief and cryptic, but suggestive all the same. "Wouldn't it be nice if we were older then we wouldn't have to wait so long. Red pillow, little white mouse, I'll fuck you, then I'll fuck you. When you wake up won't you be glad to know that I'll never wake up again?" This record is being billed as a full-length, but I'd honestly hesitate to call it anything other than a bit of an extended EP. But regardless, this being my first real exposure to the band I'm not disappointed. This is good stuff, and I look forward to hearing more. (7/10)
Running time - 21:57, Tracks: 9
[Notable tracks: Breakfast, How Are You Doing?, Moon Over Bourbon Street, Father O Fat]
Escape Artist Records - http://www.escapeartistrecords.com

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