Mathcore, “the term is suggested by analogy with math rock, but mathcore is a rythmically complex and dissonant style of metalcore”; suggested influential bands are Converge, The Dillinger Escape Plan…aha! Got it?! In my ears it is actually hardcore blended with death metal break downs on a skateboard! Furious, loud (louououd!!!), sharp, and all arranged from a surgeon perhaps, mathematically cut and slashed. Blame Kandinsky‘s LP, the 2nd release after 2014’s ‘Pink Noise Motel‘ EP, is out for all splatter scientists who enjoy rock ‘n’ roll baby!!! Athenian Blame Kandinsky are very serious in their intentions, how couldn’t they? Their music needs a lot of effort not to sound ridiculous, and they’ve managed to study their instruments a lot as well as their scientific mathcore approach. Good band, no jokes, and a very good and polished sound recorded & mixed at Unreal studios (high quality services there), mastered at Fascination Street Studios in Stockholm by Jens Borgen, all created an extremely compact sound, whether the patient walks out or goes down.
First punch ‘Cowboys Are Devout‘, 2 mins of warming up, like the doctors’ conclave with their shining surgical steel “caresssing” on their approach, hardcore and quite busy. ‘Motivation‘, I started moshing on my desk, mathematically deranged on that groovy tune. I’ll stop here, let me listen first…Well ok here I am, how do I look? I feel fine, does that tongue replacing my left eye look good? And that eye on my navel? Ok fine, elegant! I wouldn’t be fair but so boring, analyzing each song I listened in the surgery. ‘Where The Sun Is Silent‘ though, gave me that Black Flag chills to enjoy my render. And in ‘Goya’s Polaroid‘ I somehow heard the anesthetist whispering strange things, while I felt Goya’s presence making his usual documentation, you have to listen to that! Later on, while I was clearly listening to all the ‘Consuming Angels Breeding Demons‘, amazed by their deathmetal-o-roll, she came in, ‘Brenda‘ I believe was her name. She was anxious and nervous, she was jumping all around trying to bring me back, and she was angry on the team, preaching and pointing her finger, shouting and furiously explaining what’s gonna happen to the scientific community if I won’t make it through, man she was angry! But everything went fine and all of us enjoyed my happy ride in the corridors to my room, successfully smiling and drinking to ‘Years Of The Vulture‘ like we discovered the happiest infinity, that was fun! “He made it, he’s coming back, look at him and that glorious Glasgow Smile on his face” said the head of “my” scientific team, and I started waking up like a virgin angel in a mathcore convention, altogether singing along the last lines of the poem “behind a smile, you can see more than meets the eye, at the end we all share our stories alone”.
Now, I’m fine these days, though I look a little like a Kandinsky‘s painting but no, don’t Blame Kandinsky ’cause they’re spotting elegance in chaos, man. Take your skateboards to the pit, turn it really loud, and mosh like there’s no tomorrow!
Mike Dimitriou