13 July 2014

BÖKANÖVSKY


Someone want to talk to me intelligently about French emo? It's a subgenre I'm far less familiar with than most so I can't speak with anything approaching authority. This release sat essentially dormant on my shelf for years after I bought it (probably because I thought it was a weird metal thing, but also probably because I had four too many dollars that day) until I unearthed it recently and was throttled the same way I was when I first heard Nihiliste(s) in 2009 - the same year BÖKANÖVSKY released this opus. Each side is a complete journey, but you have to be willing to travel if you want to reach the destination - impossible song construction makes you forget that the first track clocks in at more than a quarter hour, but the final minutes are more than worth the wait. The second movement acts as a cool down from the first, more relaxing/resigned and less determined...until the final 70 seconds suck the air out of you. Calculated and gratuitous, I'm not sure why I like it (or how many points it will cost me), but sometimes it's best to not ask why.

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