“You never wanted to escape. now you’re a stranger.”
Now fifteen-year veterans Kowloon Walled City have become well regarded in their approach to noise rock, math rock, and doom. With albums such as Grievances and splits with artists such as Thou and KEN MODE, the Oakland-based band have built up a strong foundation for their next album. Piecework will become the band’s fourth album in six years and over its seven songs it looks to explore death, aging and love. These are inspired by the death of vocalist Scott Evans’ Father and the strength he found from the women in his life. One of these, his maternal Grandmother, whose work at a shirt factory in Kentucky for 40 years gives the album its title.
The opener and title track shows the album isn’t going to waste a second of its 30-minute stay. From the outset, the low-toned bass guitar rumbles against the ear layered with a hammering guitar riff. There’s a meticulous nature to drubbing drums, especially in the early bridge. As each chord is played, it feels like the brewing of a storm. “Utopia” doesn’t provide much respite, as ravenous atmospheric riffs build against a brooding backdrop of sound and vocal melodies. The song closes out in crescendo with one of the best verses on the album.
like mother and son, you checked out.
you feel weightless through long weeks.
the weeks are like years.
but real or not, left for dead,
there’s no sorry songs left.
After the emotional intensity of the opening tracks, “Oxygen Tent” greets us with a slamming bass, almost a warning for the eye of the storm that is about to be entered. Backed with a clamouring rock-esque riff sequence, Evans’ lamenting vocals are a touching reminder of the themes presented on Piecework. After the assault on the emotions, “You Had A Plan” offers some time to sit with it for a while. Not too long after, it gives us a reminder that it’s not over with a heartfelt “when you said you had a plan, i didn’t understand.” finishing off an anxiety-ridden closing sequence.
“Splicing” offers up one of the most memorable guitar performances of the record; a haunting riff that carries the song. While potentially one of the more restrained songs on the album, it doesn’t feel like a weak-link. There’s something to be said about how drawn back a lot of this album is, with moments of almost silence that give the album its sense of atmosphere. Piecework fits its artwork, an abandoned room of an abandoned house. Each track and verse is almost like walking around that house, looking back on what once was. Everything drawn back to its brittle frames, all of the once beauty present stripped away.
just a worn out phrase
we keep dulled down.
the same old family frame
with our skin stretched out.
you only planned for the best, for the debt
Before the album closes off, “When We Fall Through The Floor”, offers up a steady-paced drone rock sound which encapsulates the strained emotion of the previous tracks. “one last thought”, “Lampblack” begins to reflect, acting as a closer should; looking back at the experienced narrative and emotions, and offering up some catharsis before the listener exits out the door. All this while the guitars and drums continue to grind away with their hammering tones in the background.
While on the surface, Piecework might look somewhat harmless, it’s an album with deep emotional maturity and resonance. An album that in its restraint allows for the sadness and anger in Evans‘ vocals and the sonical aggression to strike through. While it’s a storm of emotions and an album that’s going to leave you at the side of the road, it’s a trip worth venturing on.
8.5/10