Throatruiner Records are fast becoming one of the most reliable labels in the world for putting out stellar, genre-defining hardcore and metal. Like Deathwish Inc, Southern Lord or Holy Roar, merely seeing the label’s logo on the back of an album is enough to instil confidence that the music contained within will be more than worthy of your time and attention. Following excellent albums from The Rodeo Idiot Engine and Birds In Row/WAITC in the later part of 2015, Throatruiner are now kicking 2016’s doors in with the latest full-length from Toulouse, France’s blackened grinders Plebeian Grandstand.
Having last troubled our stereos in 2014 with the pulverising ‘Lowgazers’, the band’s new record, ‘False Highs, True Lows’, is a truly harrowing experience, from the creepy instrumental intro ‘Mal Du Ciecle’ to the final rasped words of closer ‘Eros Culture’. Treading the same gnarled musical path as acts like Hexis and Tempest, Plebeian Grandstand are masters of conjuring up aural hurricanes of epic proportions, with walls of dense blastbeats shrouded in eerie, nerve-shredding arpeggiated riffs and layers of barely-human vocals capable of making the hair stand up on the back of the neck of any listeners brave enough to hit the play button.
Though the four-piece began back in 2005 as more of a metallic hardcore act, the intervening years have seen their sound evolve into almost pure black metal. We’re not talking the trendy, shoegazey, Deafheaven brand of black metal either – this is full-on, razor-edged Nordic bleakness, albeit without any of the more ridiculous trappings of the genre – there’s no corpse paint or spiked gauntlets here. The sheer terror invoked by the bands twisting compositions is more than frightening enough without the need for them to dress like ghouls.
If there is anything negative that could be levelled at ‘False Highs..’, it’s that the all-out assault is so dense and unrelenting that it does become a little repetitive. The constant blasting and shredding is stunning to behold, but track after track of it does become exhausting. There are some moments on the album that break up the pummelling though, such as penultimate track ‘Tame The Shapes’. Here Plebeian Grandstand ease off on the pace and instead bring a gloomy, stark drone influence into the picture, and it’s a welcome change after the bevy of flat-out rage that precedes it. The band wear doom well, with the slower, more crushing riffs adding further texture to the record. Hopefully this is something the band will explore further on future releases, as the dynamic shift only enhances the furious walls of noise surrounding it.
That little quibble aside, there’s really not much cause for complaint with ‘False Highs, True Lows’, as on this, the band’s third album, they’ve crafted a mini-masterpiece. The intense noisescapes are certainly not going to appeal to everyone, however those with a strong constitution and a predilection for the harshest end of the hardcore and metal spectrum would do well to let Plebeian Grandstand escort them into riff oblivion.
JAMES LEE