A typical mid-90s schoolyard. Grunge still reigns supreme – doom & gloom, teenage angst, heavy grooves and heavy guitars. Still, other songs keep cropping up on mixtapes lately. These songs don’t trade in depressive nihilism, but promise optimism and hope instead, and they’re played by a diffuse group of bands that have little in common but this open, euphoric sound. SUGAR. ECHOBELLY. The AFGHAN WHIGS in in their ecstatic moments. And yes, five strange guys in a band called OASIS that has just released “Live Forever”. As if someone pushed the windows wide open and let in light and melody.
For the past few years, ENTROPY have been gathering momentum to translate the sound of that schoolyard circa 1994 right into the present moment. After the massive walls of sound on their debut album “Liminal” (2020) and the “Death Spell” EP (2022), the new album “Dharmakāya” presents a light-flooded sonic architecture that marries highly melodic vocal lines and jangly guitars that echo their Britpop influences with the band’s roots in posthardcore and shoegaze, drawing from bands like JAWBOX and MY BLOODY VALENTINE. This results in ultra-catchy tunes like “King of Rain”, “Don’t Deny Me” and “Americans (Will Save You in the End)”, which also manage to connect to present-day bands such as HOTLINE TNT and ALVVAYS.
True, heavier moments can still be found, from the Raga-tinged rock stomp of the title track to the metallic, HELMET-esque riffing in “Pyrotheology” and “Papered Over Some”, but it cannot be denied that the overall musical atmosphere of the album is decidedly energetic and hopeful. As mentioned above ENTROY obviously take their cues from the 90s, but they refuse to succumb to mere complacent nostalgia. Instead, the vital spark that these songs radiate demands that they find their listenership in the here and now – because they want to live in this time, not in the distant past.
The album was recorded and mixed by Phil Meyer-Wien at Heavy Kranich Studios in Münster/Germany and mastered by Dan Coutant at Sun Room Audio (NY), whose previous work includes bands like BRAID, FIDDLEHEAD and JAWBOX. Lyrically, there are songs that deal with dating (albeit while struggling with chronic illness, as in “Don’t Deny Me” and “Gap-Toothed”), songs that delve into questions relating to mental health (as on display in “Americans (Will Save You in the End”)) and songs that explore spiritual themes (“Pyrotheology”, “Olympian”), drawing from the ideas of writers like Peter Rollins and Robert Pírsig. The title of the record is derived from the latter’s work, where the Buddhist term “Dharmakāya” is used to describe the experience of letting go of one’s intellectual defenses and, quite literally, letting the light in
Post correlati:
MOTHICA – New Video/Single “Red” Out Now; Album “Kissing Death” To Be Released 23rd August 2024 Via Heavy Heart/Rise Records
TELLTALE – Release New Single/Video ‘Monster’ Taken From Debut Full-Length Album Telltale out 17th May 2024 via Rude Records
MEST – Debuts “Hate You Sober” (ft. Spencer Charnas of Ice Nine Kills) The Second Single Off Upcoming Album ‘Youth’; Out Everywhere On June 21
LUCIFER – Release Single ‘I Would Follow You Babe’ feat. GRAVEYARD’s Joakim Nilsson As Official Anthem Of Mystic Festival 2024