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SILVERBULLIT
ARCLIGHT
ALBUM
NEG, PUSH RELEASE: NOVEMBER
24, 2004 REVIEW: DECEMBER
8, 2004
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In the months running up to the release
of Silverbullit’s new album
“Arclight”, the Swedish
music press has gathered in flocks
around the band. Like voyeurs hoping
for a peek through the curtains at
some sort of deranged peepshow of
psychopathology, they’ve resembled
spectators gathering around a car
crash more than anything else, as
if they’ve all been secretly
hoping for a breakdown. The myths
surrounding the band do of course
do their part in encouraging such
behaviour – from the selfdestructiveness
of their early performances to the
much discussed three year hiatus between
this and their last album, “Citizen
Bird”.
Any doubts of the band’s ability
to deliver a worthy follow-up to that
album are instantly put to shame by
“Arclight”. While “Citizen
Bird” was no doubt great, it
still lost its grip on me in places.
No such things happen with “Arclight”,
which is a chaotic yet focused blast
of corrosive rock. Silverbullit have
expanded their already impressive
palette to encompass traces of Joy
Division, New Order and body music
alongside the ever present Spacemen
3, Stooges and Suicide. They’ve
increased the use of electronics without
really cutting down on the guitars,
which means that there’s simply
more of everything here.
The
songs thrive amidst these crashes
of machines and monotonous, crunching
sheets of guitar mania, collisions
of pile driving drums and crystal
clear synthesizer melodies. The darkness
and desperation make for an album
that’s almost suffocatingly
dense at times, but also manage to
induce a furious sort of dark joy.
In “Blood”, those feelings
that are “calling inside”
are crystallised into a song of devastating
power, and the collision of DAF, noise
and manic rock that is “Once
Upon a Time” isn’t far
behind. Even those pale in comparison
to ”Buddy”, though. A
cover of obscure New Zeeland band
Snappers, it reaches unprecedented
heights of almost psychotic intensity,
and has the best organ riff I’ve
heard in ages to boot.
The
only problem I have with “Arclight”
is the tendencies towards inflated
pomposity that stain a few tracks.
These moments are like spots of mould
with faint but unpleasant odours of
the less tolerable aspects of the
80’s, which is a shame on an
otherwise brilliant album.
KRISTOFFER
NOHEDEN
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