If you ever fancy having your ears blistered and senses twisted inside out and stretched from pillar to post, then Turkish mathcore band Chopstick Suicide are eager and ready to do a very satisfying job with their new album Lost Fathers and Sons. A band that is as new to you as to us I am sure, Chopstick Suicide have come up with a tasty release that intrigues with fine unpredictable invention and pleases with a vibrant vein of dark humour and intent. The band fuse numbing heavy riffs and bulky intensity with jazz infused melodic ingenuity and head spinning discordance. Think Dillinger Escape Plan with a twist of Everytime I Die and Dog Fashion Disco and you get a feel for their distinct manipulations. The eight track album is challenging and a test upon the ear at times but it is thoroughly rewarding given time and room to violate.
From Istanbul the band formed in 2008 releasing their debut EP Recycle Your People in 2008 and first album Loserville two years later. A change that saw the current line-up of vocalist Mert, guitarist Yagiz, bassist Cem, and Alican on drums in place, released the Small People, Broken Glasses EP last year and now follow-up its strongly received attention with Lost Fathers and Sons via Turkish label Peyote Müzik. One still feels with this release that without a slice of luck they will remain an underground name due to one assumes a limited exposure the label can give the album worldwide but once heard it is hard to imagine many not taken a shine at the very least to the sounds it offers.
The album goes for the jugular from the off with Everyone Sleeps But Me, the track winding up the senses until they 
snap with an eager groove, disruptive rhythms, and storming stuttering riffs. The guitars grin with a wicked glint as they twist the nerve ends with manic delight then chuckle as they surprise with some inspired jazz flavoured infusions. The vocals from growls to rough group harmonies work wonderfully alongside the decisive nastily hypnotic sounds and though when Mert slips into a cleaner approach there is a loss of strength to his delivery the song is deeply agreeable.
This is a great and powerful start to the release that is soon equalled by the following song The Chalk And The Matter. With even more intensity and mass the track marches through the ear with chugging riffs to evolve into an unrelenting battering of boisterous rhythms entangled with scorched melodic guitar jabs and a mesmeric jazz funk interlude. The maelstrom of sounds as on every track verges on lunacy and what a deeply pleasing wild ride it is.
The likes of the ravenous Shores Are Not For Vacancies, the wonderful barely controlled Television Television, and the belligerent As I Lay Fail, all continue the impressive level and leave one gasping for breath under the pummelling and unique invention the band thrust through the ear. The album will not work for all; those wanting an easy journey will run for cover shaking heads but for those with adventure to their tastes Lost Fathers and Sons is one stirring experience.
The album does not come without flaws though not majorly damaging ones. At times the release hangs almost too far over the ‘throw everything in the pot’ line to diminish the effect a leaner song would have offered but there is nothing that deeply detracts from a great collection of songs. The other aspect that does not quite work is the clean vocals of Mert, as a growling vocalist he is supreme and when he merges that into a smoother grizzled attack he is excellent too but straight clean vocals are not his forte as shown notably on Your Average Hero. Hopefully they will stick with the coarser attack in the future or bring another voice in for any clean elements they infuse into the songs.
The release ends on the wonderful punk riot of Kolpa, a straight punk /hardcore unbridled bomb of fun. It does not really fit with the rest of the album but is simply a bedlamic bundle of eagerness that has one grinning broadly especially the closing electronic repeating of the name Lene Lovich.
Lost Fathers and Sons is great fun and an accomplish work of musicians who have an ingenious and slightly insane creative ability to excite and pleasure. You may not have heard of Chopstick Suicide yet but go change that right now with this excellent album.
www.facebook.com/chopsticksuicide
Ringmaster 28/03/2012
The best and easiest way to get your music on iTunes, Amazon and lots more. Click below for details.
