Dripping melancholic animosity as physical and emotional dissonance invades ears and the imagination at every turn, Songs From The Lowest Floor makes a potent excuse for keeping creators, Filth In My Garage under close attention. The band’s debut album is an invasive slice of post hardcore driven incitement which is going to be hard to ignore, no matter to what degree its bracing and abrasive enterprise persuades individual tastes. With the unpredictability of noise and punk rock adding to its increasingly fascinating character, Songs From The Lowest Floor is certainly a striking ravishment, with a further potent line in hooks and daring inventiveness sure to grab plenty of eager appetites.
Filth In My Garage was formed in 2007, founded by guitarist Matteo, vocalist Stefano, and drummer Luca. As their sound grew and was honed, the band found it developing a post hardcore heart which went to subsequently flavour a trio of EPs, all catching local support which itself expanded with each encounter. Now with drummer Mauro, guitarist Jack, and bassist Simone alongside Matteo and Stefano, the Bergamo quintet looks ready to lure bigger spotlights their way with Songs From The Lowest Floor.
Released via Argonauta Records, the album opens up with Stampede and immediately ears feel like they are facing a gunslinger within a sultry western set sky. The instrumental slowly rises to its full height as sonic tendrils offer a smouldering tempting against portentous shadows which court the emotionally thick character of the opening. A spark for ears and imagination, the track slips seamlessly into the bruising rock ‘n’ roll of Black and Blue. It is a quickly persuasive incitement cantering along with an infectious gait and energy as Stefano’s hardcore seeded squalls uncage lyrical and emotional ire. As the song expands its sonic volatility, a veining of expressive melodies emerges to blend with a harmonic caress of vocals. It is a recurring moment in the tempest of the track, never hanging round but seeming to spark new adventure to the maelstrom of intensity around it.
Devil’s Shape is as antagonistic and predacious at its start as the last was by its close, though it quickly shows, even if at times with subtlety, imaginative twists and turns within the tide of riffs and sonic discord. Rhythmically the track is an anthemic protagonist, stirring up eager attention even as things slow a touch as hostility rises. A calmer passage provides an oasis in the storm, it’s emotionally charged melodic calm drifting over the senses to beguile thoughts midway before its surroundings begin to bristle again and crowd in on the lure of clean vocals and warm melodies.
Grouchy riffs and gripping bass hues line the emergence of the following instrumental Greenwitch, though its air and charm is seeded in the album’s opening track. That predacious coaxing soon steers the piece through a mercurial landscape of sonic antipathy persistently skirted by the anthemic enticement of drums and bestially toned bass. As mentioned previously, the band’s sound is post hardcore spawned yet this song alone shows the great variety and weave of flavours the band skilfully employs and takes tenaciously into the prickly attitude of the invasively enveloping The Awful Path. The track is compelling stuff, impressing most, as does the album, when it without hint but coherently slips into seemingly unconnected detours of imagination and gripping adventurous sound; something personal tastes hope the band boldly explores more in the future.
Red Door is another swaying and slipping into the psyche with a spaghetti western scented melodic climate. Its sweltering air is more inviting than oppressive, and a rich embracing of ears and thoughts which paves the way for, in this case, a bullying of vocals and raw intensity. The track keeps its reins on its animus though, even as Stefano spills the lyrical discontent from within the magnetic endeavours of Matteo and Jack. Of course in time, the track frees itself into a fierce blaze but still retains rock ‘n roll contagiousness to its irritated animosity. Understandably references to bands like Poison The Well and Norma Jean come up around Filth In My Garage but here alone, you can find great reasons to mention the likes of Coilguns or Sofy Major as further clues to that moment in time.
The forceful and enthralling adventure is completed by firstly the truculent and increasingly addictive escapade of The Lowest Floor and finally the riveting drama of Owl Feather Band. The first bounds through ears leaving bruises and concussive residues in its wake; though it too has plenty of great contrasts through unexpected moments whilst its successor is a journey through a tapestry of textures and flavours within an equally evolving wind of intensity and aggression. Arguably the most imaginative and exploratory song on the album, it provides a fine end to an impressive first look, for us, at Filth In My Garage.
No album should be assessed fully on one or two listens and that certainly applies to Songs From The Lowest Floor. It is over time that it reveals an imagination and adventure which allows the band to intrigue and grab keen interest right now but will ensure, as it develops, they stand right out in a crowded post hardcore landscape ahead. Filth In My Garage is a band, as suggested earlier, it is going to be hard to ignore.
Songs from the Lowest Floor is out now via Argonauta Records and @ http://filthinmygarage.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/filthinmygarage
Pete RingMaster 08/03/2016
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