I never know how to feel when listening to a new band’s demo
material. It’s not the fact that demos are never perfect; demos are cool for
what they promise as much as what they deliver. My reservation toward demos
lies exactly in that promise. Just like I’m never sure if a band I love is
going to follow up on a great LP, I’m never sure if a demo band I like will
make it to one decent LP before they break up or change so drastically that I’ll
wish that they had.
California's Syntax is the perfect band to speak on this occurrence about.
Their Demo from 2009 was quite
promising, if derivative of Discordance Axis, and the fact that I liked it
worried me as much as it excited me, for fear that whatever they filled in the
blanks with once they discarded their grind hero worship would make me wish
that they’d just remade The Inalienable
Dreamless.
Syntax’s 2012 material is feedback-scarred, destructive
stuff, and a definite step up from the 2009 Demo.
Gone is the overwhelmingly Discordance Axis-lite aesthetic, along with the
thin, clean guitar tone and the Damage Digital trashcan drums of the first
outing. In its place is a looser, more mature set of songs that pack a lot of
noise while still retaining the angular, tech-flecked style that made them an
exciting find a year ago. This Syntax has more in common at first glance with a
band like Cellgraft than Discordance Axis or Assück, and as back-handed as that
sounds from a pedigree standpoint, it’s meant as high praise.
The science fiction aesthetic of the demo is still present,
though this record trades the thin,
cerebral quality of something like Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot for a dirty, intense and visceral tone reminiscent of
Richard K. Morgan’s Altered Carbon or
William Gibson’s Neuromancer.
From a vocals standpoint, it’s hard for me to not love this
band. Vocalist David’s main approach is a high, gasping shriek that sounds like he’s
putting every ounce of himself into the performance. That trick is hardly the
only one at his disposal, however, and this release finds David hitting
gut-churning lows more often and deeper than found on the last one.
Never is the sonic shift from 2009’s Demo to Syntax 2012 more
noticeable than in the opening of first track “To Forget.”
A slow, emotive, eyes-downcast riff floats through the
feedback that opens “Glitch,” gaining intensity until it chugs itself into
full-fledged blasting halfway through. The guitar and drums toy with several
riffs, stop-starts and tempos over its run, a technique that assures that the
song stays exciting while never getting tangled in the convoluted vines of math
metal.
“Shape Shifter,” the definite “single” if grindcore had or
needed such a thing, resurrects the Discordance Axis staple of half-time riffs
over blasting drum patterns. Guitars stab and flail around seismic, rolling
drums, screams emerging from every direction; the three players ride shifting
cyclical patterns around one another, three interlocking cogs in the same
grinding piece of machinery. Some moments find them perfectly at pace with one
another, while others find them at angles with each other in ways that only
seem asynchronous until you look at them twice.
This is the sound of a band coming into its own. It’s the
point where you can stop saying, “This is really cool because it sounds like:”
and start saying, “This is really cool.” Now is the time to start hoping for a
Syntax LP, because the band that I’m hearing on Syntax 2012 has the chops and direction to actually pull one off.
You can download Syntax 2012 from Grindcore Karaoke. You can also find the 2009 Demo there in a version that's oddly missing two tracks, or grab the full version from Karlo at Cephalochromoscope.
You can download Syntax 2012 from Grindcore Karaoke. You can also find the 2009 Demo there in a version that's oddly missing two tracks, or grab the full version from Karlo at Cephalochromoscope.
