The St Pierre Snake Invasion

2023-04-20 07:00:13

Long album breaks are for The St Pierre Snake Invasion nothing new, but at least it wasn’t in the hands of the British quintet this time. They deliberately did not want to write a Corona album so as not to date the music, and instead devoted themselves to universal themes. Frontman Damien Sayell also became a father for the first time in the summer of 2021, which definitely had an impact on the new material. And that breaks out of the current noise and punk waters more than ever to conjure up significantly more chaos. Bands as diverse as LCD Soundsystem, Soulwax and Meshuggah were the inspiration „Galore“.

That means more chaos through noise and a steadily escalating amount of math(core), but also synthetic-electronic experiments that get to the bottom. Songs like the closing “I Pray To Liars” sum up the old and new madness. The quintet quickly moves into media res, the guitar gets on your nerves wonderfully, before the first broadside lands the first of many direct hits with selected rough force. Things escalate in a different way in the second half, with noise and math fueled by electronics – stubborn yet catchy, vaguely reminiscent of acts like Horse The Band and Genghis Tron, yet far removed from it.

The synthetic resonates from the start on “Submechano” as the band fuels through mathcore complexities that nonetheless feel earthy. Anthemic singing, rough shouts and small raves bridge the gap between The Dillinger Escape Plan and Enter Shikari. In “That There’s Fighting Talk” the Brits go completely crazy, unleashing several pressure waves and yet somehow remaining in need of harmony. The house of cards is always in danger of collapsing, and this can also be seen in the menacing “To Sleep Well”. Guest-contributed by Ashley Tubb (Sugar Horse), the rugged, uncomfortable presentation works its way briskly and engagingly through noisy thickets.

The concentrated peculiarity of this album is fun. Rarely have The St Pierre Snake Invasion been so withdrawn and at the same time so accessible. A certain inconsistency is at the forefront almost continuously in “Galore” and makes the Brits’ latest coup so entertaining. Math and noise open up broken extremes and dissect everything that stands in their way, only to abduct the entire event into the absurd and at the same time doubly gripping with electronic wasteland. The sum of the individual parts can no longer be got out of the head in the best sense of the word.

Rating: 8/10

Available from: 04/21/2023
Available through: Church Road Records

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