“Flowers in my mouth nurture the earth with all my memories.”
Spanish screamo flag-bearers Boneflower have produced an incredibly consistent discography thus far. Their two LPs are fantastic blends of screamo, post hardcore and shoegaze, and their EPs have also been strong, with their first I’ll Be The Bones, You’ll Be The Soul still being worth visiting ten years on. Reveries now comes after a larger gap between studio releases, the only hold over being “Pyrrhic Victories” from the Secret Voice sampler Balladeers, Redefined, a compilation that has helped galvanize the worldwide screamo movement. It’s therefore appropriate Reveries is their longest and most carefully constructed record yet, demonstrating all their delicate ferocity.
We could call Reveries business as usual for Boneflower, as their formula remains largely the same, true to the blistering performances they’ve been putting on in basements and dive bars across the EU. Their sound has always been true to their three-piece format. The guitars are always followed by dreamlike reverb, yet they can still land a mean riff. The crackling bass that’s never ever lost in the mix, and the drums have that essential breadth and imagination seen in the best of modern post hardcore, such as the likes of Viva Belgrado, Brutus and Birds in Row. The mix presented on Reveries is careful to make space for all of these parts, meaning they’ve never sounded more heavy and more serene.
Nocturnal is underpinned by blissful melodic moments which become the biting point for so many of its short songs. There’s no better example than “Lonely meteor” which spits out two choruses in its first minute, then closes with an extended and blissful build-up. “Sal En Mis Pestañas” delivers its hooks in their native Spanish language, something they’d already explored on the Dolor / 遠来 EP. The spirited “Pomegranate” provides the record’s most accessible riffwork and vocal earworms; if it had any less intensity, it could be a pop punk track, in the best way possible. “Pomegranate” will also startle anyone with an ear for post hardcore and emo thanks to its vocal feature from Jeremy Bolm of Touche Amore. He provides the perfect half-way point between Eric Montejo’s harsh screams and gentle vocals.
Boneflower work much complexity into these tracks whilst keeping them melodically gratifying. Much of their early songwriting is fairly linear, dipping into riff repetition or choruses if the time is right. “Coup de Grâce” is the first track that really slows it down, launching into a doomgaze-like introduction, wavering in between this and their more typical blistering intensity to create the longest cut on the album. They often inject complexity and intrigue without extending the track lengths – “Anniversary” features blast beats that create an all-embracing introduction, leading to an instrumental that sees all three members blast out tight licks. The impassioned closing section leaves you astounded as to what they’ve fit into two and a half minutes.
To further extend the range of the record, the back half is built around the tranquil “I Gazed At The Starred Night All Alone And Blood Tasted Like Honey In My Mouth, Lethargic”. The drumsticks become brushes and distortion becomes a distant dream while a few melodies are plucked at leisure. Previously, they’ve had multiple interludes on their albums, such as Armour’s incredibly memorable guitar pieces. This time around they’ve opted for a single monolithic interlude that sequesters the last few tracks into different space. Perhaps most importantly, inviting the whole band along to play on “I Gazed…” means it comes across as a more thoroughly mediated inclusion (although let me be the first to request a fully ambient side project from the band).
One of the new techniques which occurs across the record is the doubling of the vocals, where Montejo tracks both a whisper and a scream. Besides being a compelling studio technique, it fully encapsulates the dichotomy of Boneflower’s music; serenity so raw and reckless, abounding with brightness that forces you to squint at its intensity. The record’s first moments, “The Sun And Moon”, start us within this delicate space, developing into one of the record’s most complex cuts. Much later, just after the aforementioned massive interlude has lulled us back down to Earth, “The Void” closes the record with this doubled vocal approach throughout. It’s completely unique within their discography, slowing down the pace with post punk inspired rhythms and shuffling drums, and the whispered vocals bring them to an elysian, Alcest-like place. As the track makes its turns, they decline to throw it into overdrive, with just two intense outbursts. It’s a more than worthy closer and points to new directions for the band to explore in the future.
Screamo is not a genre that you dive into for anything beyond the respect of its worldwide bedroom community. Still, Boneflower have honed their sound gradually over their first ten years, and Reveries is ripened fruit of this process. By rights, this album should garner much respect worldwide for fans of the genre. Furthermore, it should be appreciated in the wider post hardcore scene, or really, by anybody who is seeks a sound that represents every extreme of emotion at once.
9/10
Reverie releases through Deathwish Inc. on the 25th July and can be pre-ordered at Deathwish, the band’s store, or Dogknights Productions (UK).