When reviewing a split release, there’s a temptation to pit the two artists against each other, as if collaboration should give way to competition. No such descriptions are applicable to the split LP from Pariso and Svalbard – two of the UK’s brightest hopes in heaviness – who met early last year and have shared flag-carrying duties for UK hardcore ever since.
Pariso’s trademark sludge is as sickening as ever, harnessing all manner of horror through tunings lower than any man-made instrument should muster. All rumours of the brown note can now be put to rest – if this lot haven’t found it, no one will. ‘Helios, The Demise’ is surely the highlight, the rolling waves of harmonics disguising a resolutely downtrodden and distraught core.
Things are taken up an octave as the Svalbard side rears its head, but it’s no less punishing. Speed is Svalbard’s ally, as they storm into life with the choking and aptly-titled ‘Ripped Apart’. Things err more on the ambient side through this latter half, but with a pace which never allows for pussy-footed reflection. Euphoric in an entirely ferocious manner, the Bristol mob manage to combine ambiance and aggression without ever relying on overwrought outpourings or changing course.
Undoubtedly the true beauty of the split, however, lies in its bookends of two collaborative tracks. Written and recorded together, the result is the purest possible combination of the two bands. Both are gut-wrenchingly ferocious manifestations of the camaraderie hardcore prides itself on – the sound of two unstoppable forces smashing straight through an immovable object.
In a year where Every Time I Die are once again sweeping the board for metal and hardcore’s annual accolades, Pariso and Svalbard are sure to have brought the sleeper hit of the scene. Unrelenting and utterly breathtaking, this is a point on heavy music’s timeline that, if justice prevails, will surely be referenced for years to come.
TOM CONNICK