Our Future Is An Absolute Shadow
Photo Cred 📷 : @zegema_beach (Image is from Apostles of Eris at ZBR Fest 2023)
Hyper is the force that can pack so much into songs that find their comfortable if not abrupt end at the 2 minute mark. And hyper is only one of many adjectives to describe Our Future Is An Absolute Shadow’s debut LP. It’s certainly been a long time coming and the density of the structure does not belie the immensity of the material. The band have long been a ghostly figure on the internet since their initial inception back in 2020.
The collaborative concoction of insane screamo dynamics cage-fighting emoviolence sensibilities on an undercard of immense desperation and climate anxiety is a project started by their drummer Adrian and became a collective brainchild including David Norman and Jesse Mowery, three absolute legends in the scene who’ve been heavy in their influence and shaping of our sound. Demarcating a point in the bands existence, the album slowly warbles before it wrenches, punches and kicks with opener “Mimitwo”. The soft pluck and stride of guitars immediately bursts into a thick and punchy riff, before slow grooving into soft choruses and heady throaty screams. “Sometimes When I’m Falling” sees a quick pivot and shift into a start stop shredfest calls back to mid-2000s punchy chugs with married unions of shouted and screamed vocals.
Our Future can rip and flurry with the best of them, but the overall atmosphere of the band as a whole helps make the album what it is. A opalescent mystique encases the project, and with little internet presence they fly more on the radar of genre purists and fanatics than the general screamo zeitgeist. At least that may have been the case with their 2021 debut EP and an excellent split with criminally underrated Komarov. With tracks like “Strike Zone Pro Box Set” and “The French Say Brobaire” the band cuts clear that change is the name of the game but heavy and fast are still the referees.
Album closer “Our Future Is An Absolute Nightmare”, wraps the whole package up with a neatly discordant bow. The longest track on the album it whiles and wanders with classic emocore singing uncertain chord fingering and masked spoken word, cutting into throaty shouts and dreams traded in a call and response with pounding percussives and sourly sweet melodies. Halting midway, a tonal change foggily emerges, with soulful guitar work and plinking undulations. It reads in plays in concert with the track title, giving full shape the the haunting uncertainty that pervades the album.
Our Future Is An Absolute Shadow is a band of many faces, largely because the true face of the band is largely obscured. Even with the players known, the mystery flourishes and eludes being pinned in one place. A sound this full between three legends of the scene and featuring guest spots from the likes of Burial Etiquette and Vi Som Alskade Varandra Sa Mycket can only come from people who hold not only the sound close to their hearts, but can also project their view of our rapidly unraveling world out on full display for all to see.
The full album is out for listening now, with the 12’’ vinyl available via Zegema Beach Records.
Checkout the LP here : Zegema Beach Records
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
01/15/24
