‘The closer you get to gods, the further you have to fall’
Lets get this out of the way early because it’d be ignorant to talk of Strange Places without mentioning their impressive pedigree. Up until recently vocalist Max Bienkowski fronted the thinking mans un-mosh band Wayfarer, whilst guitarists Fisher and Duncan along with drummer Crabb broke teenage hearts and made middle aged men weep with their 90’s grunge-punk battle re-enactment Basement.
Musically this sits a little closer to the metal of Wayfarer than the Seaweed/Samiam tip that Basement were on. And make no bones about it this is VERY fucking metal. There’s definite nods to early Life Of Agony and Master Of Puppets era Metallica in terms of pace, mosh parts and riffing and I can hear some CFH Pantera influence in the promethean face melters that writhe across these three songs like molten lead.
Lyrically SP are not a million miles away from vocalist Max’s previous exploits in Wayfarer, though this time he’s drawing influence from the myth of Hyperborea and the hollow earth rather than the poetic eddas. References to hidden kingdoms ,lost worlds and astral voyaging will doubtless please listeners of an esoteric persuasion like myself, particularly when it’s informed with a genuine scholars knowledge rather than being used to create some cheap veneer of ‘weird. I hate that.
Plaudits aside, this debut release for the band is far from seamless. There’s a couple of clunky transitions here and there and Max’s singing voice is a little rough around the edges in places. That said, If anything it’s these burrs that keep Strange Places on the ride side of the punk/metal barrier and I’ll take raw attitude over a polished ‘product’ any day of the week. There’s more than enough hooks, breakdowns and anthems to incite mosh rage in punks and long hairs alike.
All that and a sweet painting of a Balrog on the front cover too, if you like what you hear pick one up quick from the CTW link on the sidebar because it’s a legit limited run (as in very few copies were manufactured) not ‘limited edition’ of ten thousand like Dark Vengeance. If this is what Strange Places are capable of on their demo then the next release really should be something to behold. Outstanding.
Listen here:
MOSH