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BEASTMILK  Climax  CD   (Magic Bullet)   13.98


�� One of the best new bands to emerge in the past few years out of this current 80's-era post punk revival is Beastmilk, a Finnish band who appeared in 2010 with their White Stains On Black Tape demo that was later championed by Darkthrone's Fenriz on his Band of the Week blog. It was easy to hear why - these seasoned musicians (which include front-man Kvohst of Code / Hexvessel / D�dheimsgard, and Juho Goatspeed from the amazing avant-garde black metal band Spiderpact) appeared fully formed, performing a sort of driving, anthemic gloom-rock with a subtle metallic undercurrent and gobs of apocalyptic atmosphere, but with monumental hooks that seemed primed and ready for something arena-sized. Their first full length Climax (now back in stock here at C-Blast) polished that sound even more, delivering ten tracks of infectious, disaffected post-punk that is ridiculously catchy stuff, and which should be heard STAT by anyone into the similarly gloomy, infectious sounds of like-minded bands Vaura, Soror Dolorosa and Hateful Abandon, who all share some sort of distant black metal background. Compared to some of those bands, though, Beastmilk's roots in the Nordic metal underground are barely noticeable here, if at all.

��As the propulsive drive of "Death Reflects Us" kicks off Climax with a perfectly crafted blast of soaring gloom-rock, the bass guitar and chiming riffs soar over pounding motorik drumming, the vocals clear and soaring as they ascend to the anthemic hook of the chorus. That anthemic quality is all over this album, the bass guitar WAY out front as it lays down the driving Joy Division-esque lines, fusing their huge hooks to grim visions of a world in rapid collapse and other, more personal ruminations, and Kvohst's Danzig-esque croon is at once both icy and tremulous, layered into striking harmonies at all the right moments. "The Wind Blows Through Their Skulls" paints a bleak portrait of a radioactive nightmare future, as do the likes of "Genocidal Crush" and "Nuclear Winter", nightmarish imagery set to swirling clean guitars and crunchy metallic riffs, handclaps and huge guitar hooks shifting things into a dark majestic pop that often creates an effective contrast with the eruptions of distorted guitar squall and the relentlessly rocking tempo of most of the songs. There are echoes of The Cult and Samhain and Sisters Of Mercy all through this, and there's a bunch of moments on Climax when the band seems to suddenly transform into a vaguely blackened version of Echo And The Bunneymen - with those types of names being dropped, you should have a pretty good idea iof what sort of stuff these guys are doing, though this never sounds like pastiche to me. Songs like "You Are Now Under Our Control", "Surf The Apocalypse" and "Fear Your Mind" will rattle around in your head for days after hearing it, alternating with the slower, brooding atmosphere of songs like "Ghosts Out Of Focus" and "Strange Attractors", the latter featuring guest vocals from Viveca Butler of New York gloom rockers Occultation that closes the album with it's most haunting melody. Beastmilk are unabashed in their fierce devotion to the darkest regions of classic post punk, but they re-envisioned that sound as something much more muscular and malevolent and modern. Despite the deafening amount of hype that has been hovering around this band, it really is pretty fucking great.


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