SHORA - malval

(CD, Conspiracy)

Somewhere behind the instrumental eruptions of Shora lies a definite conceptual framework, I am sure, a theory or an idea that they want to convey and that is woven into the music to shape it into what it is, but I’ll be damned if I am able to see what it is. An album that is both instrumental and conceptual, doesn’t that sound too bad? Like godawful esoteric meanderings over great length without destination? Not at all, those days are way beyond us and hopefully they won’t ever come back. Fortunately, we also have the awful days of postrock and its pseudo-mathematical hyper-sensitivity behind us. Both of these trends ended up in utter boredom for the bigger part of what they were (don’t worry, me like everyone else, I fall into these traps of trends as well). “Malval” is completely different, because it is intense. The four long tracks on “Malval” build up a solid wall of sound from clearly identifiable sources – bass, drum, guitar, keyboards – but with a density that is rarely heard nowadays. At least not in this size and proportion. Not from Don’t mess with Texas and also not from Kraken Oxen or Natsat, though theirs are great instrumental records as well, with a propbably related background. And underneath the sounds, even in their most palatable and soft form, an evil undertow seems to lurk, waiting to drag you below. The sound of marching troops in the distance. The feeling of an enormous storm building in the dawning air.

Aside from the wide technicality taken as a means to produce a musical effect and the sensitive ear for sounds and the way instruments and their sounds interact, which were taken from postrock, Shora also finds its roots in the hardcore movement, especially in the psychotic branche that led a lot of people to metal in the following years. But if I am about to mention Neurosis, I should also try and find a way to mention the Swans, whose cold and industrial impact also didn’t come from using extreme noise or samples or distortion on their guitars, but rather from the intensity they created when playing live and the way their instruments were sounding together. On “Malval” there are a lot of tiny movements, shape-shiftings and changes, but not even the smallest of them seems afraid or shy of anything. These tracks move with the self-security and weight of well trained special forces, who don’t have to actually do anything violent or special, but impose a feeling of fright and respect just from being their. From their stares, their way of standing and holding themselves, that says “you better watch out” all over.

This band wants to produce a sound that is not only way bigger than they are themselves, they also want to set forth the brooding and frightening atmosphere of a monstermovie (I hear direct connotations to the themes of old black and white monster movies within the quavering keyboards at the beginning of “siphrodias”) or of the apocalypse. Without falling into the traps of death or any other kind of extreme metal, which becomes a parody of itself and a joke to everyone else usually sooner than later. The distanced and foreboding sense swaying through the whole 30 minutes this great CD lasts, will make you feel cold and shivering. As if a cold breeze was suddenly flowing through the room. Somewhere in the first part of “klarheit”, the last track on this record, is the only place, where the relentless and merciless rhythm-machine stops its stomping for some time – a stomping that comes from tiny and even complex movements by drums and bass and the other instruments as well – and lays down its weaponry to delve in a short time span of droning synths and distorted reverbs. It doesn’t take Shora long to get back to its trademark pounding. Nevertheless, on “klarheit” there is a surprise waiting: vocals.