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Thy Catafalque
Stengade, Copenhagen, DEN - 6/4
Album Reviews
Tang
Dynamite Drug Diamond
Written by: PP on 22/03/2014 16:37:08
Here's a relic from 2013 that I was meant to review but it got somehow forgotten as 2014 releases started flowing in. The band in question is Tang from Lille, France, and "Dynamite Drug Diamond" is their third full-length album, out now on Sober Up Records. It's also the most blatant Refused worship I've heard in a while, because lengthy sections during the record smell very much like "The Shape Of Punk To Come" has been in heavy rotation prior to the writing sessions.
That said, it's not outright identical to that record. Instead, Tang borrow also from the world of post-metal and screamo, as evident on "Life Of Shooting Stars" in particular, where influence from Japanese legends in envy can be detected. At the same time, the bare-boned approach to post-hardcore of Swedish band Traktor, and why not also JR Ewing and to some extent the genre masters At The Drive-In is at play, so there's plenty of originality present to forgive the heavy lean on Refused's back catalogue. Basically, imagine lengthy build ups, torn, desperation-driven screams, and lots and lots of quiet/loud dynamics in the soundscape, and you pretty much have "Dynamite Drug Diamond" in a nutshell.
The songs are extensive in length, as is required by the occasional post-metal influence, meaning four and a half minutes is practically the average with mammoth "Run And Run And Die" clocking in at over 6 minutes. This is fine, but there's just one problem: the songs feel like the build up and up and up forever without ever really reaching an explosion point. This was something Refused were so very good at, and how ATD-I compressed their volatile pioneering post-hardcore sound. Tang doesn't quite know what to do with their expression, leading into decent songs but ones that lack fixing points that'd make you remember them in the long run.
Download: Life Of Shooting Stars, Paint It Black
For the fans of: Refused, envy, At The Drive-In, Traktor
Listen: Facebook
Release date 04.11.2013
Sober Up records