On ‘Super Rebound’, the Belgian quartet turn sludge, noise rock and monster-movie enthusiasm into something suspiciously uplifting. Their “champagnemetal” comes with considerable pressure in the bottle.
Heavy music has made excellent use of despair. 30,000 Monkies would like access to the other emotions, too.
The Beringen quartet’s latest album pursues a sound they’ve spent years approaching: bright, open and joyful, with riffs that remain thoroughly unreasonable.
During recording, they watched giant movie monsters punch one another, repeatedly rewinding the impacts.
Finally, a creative process we can explain without using “liminal”.
The nearly seven-minute title track makes that method audible. A repeating riff gathers force through changes in attack, density and harmony.
Why demand a new idea every ten seconds if the current one is still doing damage?
Neurosis and Sumac offer coordinates for the pressure; Boris and Melvins for the freedom to bend it out of shape. There’s Harvey Milk in the collision of absurdity and feeling, Big Business in the enormous grooves that somehow achieve lift.
Across “The Gums”, “Prism Break” and “Mountainesque 4”, riffs anchor industrial insistence, punk impatience and psychedelic drift. Open harmonies let light through; hooks keep the excess moving. Some feedback passages linger, but restraint was probably never winning the studio vote.
Four years after ‘HONESTY INTEGRITY FRIENDSHIP PASSION’, the band give their eccentricity a clearer purpose: turning setbacks into momentum. Frustration remains audible, giving the brighter moments something to overcome.
Nobody needs another stranger instructing them to “choose happiness”. A substantial riff is a more considerate opening offer.
Heavy music has spent decades developing the equipment. It might as well let somebody have a good time.