Kowloon Walled City – Grievances

Third LP time for Kowloon Walled City, as the San Francisco post-hardcore types pull themselves out of the sludge to reveal something more intricate, yet no less raging than 2012’s mighty Container Ships. Scott Evans still yells with the same scintillating blend of gusto and ruin, while there’s no little muscle in the band’s performance – this time, however, silence is an equally powerful instrument.

Backlit’s wirily off-piste chords drape themselves across ominously stark passages that occasionally give way to restrainedly doomy riffs, frequently fostering a hostile tension without catharsis. Sounds like a recipe for an unfulfilling experience, but Grievances manifests its majesty in mounting despair: once your ears attune to its rewarding subtleties, the emotional rush begins to border on the epic. Manna from heaven for anyone who’s ever entertained the idea of Slint, Floor and Twelve Hour Turn locked in a glaring contest; beautifully bleak heaviosity for everyone else. [Will Fitzpatrick]