A caustic celebration of pain, death and chaos
I’m always a bit careful when indulging in genre terminology. It’s often a too-convenient yard-stick, or perhaps beat-stick, for distilling the efforts of musicians across eras into sporadically useful pigeon holes. Accusations of black metal influence are particularly dicey as the genre’s musical hallmarks are beloved, but basically everything else about it is a hot potato. However, regardless of whether you worship at the altar of 2nd wave Norwegian scene, it simply turns out that blast beats are bloody brilliant, particularly when used in moderation. Calligram are a great example of blast beat-microdosers, taking the genre’s key elements and injecting the youthful energy of hardcore punk.
Calligram’s first record The Eye is the First Circle dropped in the ominous month of April 2020, meaning most would discover the band through the internet rather than live settings. Round two is now upon them, with Position | Momentum out this week, and there’s no sign of another pandemic coming to slow it down. The record further embraces black metal without losing the crust punk influence. Vocalist Matteo Rizzardo throws his tortured Italian screams toward the stars, and you don’t need to be a native speaker to feel the emotion. A serious, brooding atmosphere pervades the record, but not by way of any shoegaze influence; all parts are rendered in perfect clarity, with tasteful echoes ringing out over quiet passages. “Ex-Sistere” is the most clearly crust punk influenced track, particularly with its short chorus with panicked backing vocals from the drummer Ardo Cotones. Later on, circle pit riffs play out over double kick, blast, and thrash beats for a holistic tour of modern metal’s most satisfying rhythmic patterns.
Great pacing in songwriting is one of Calligram’s strengths, as a clear sense of purpose is carried by each passage. Track beginnings, bridges, endings, and all manner of brief intensifications and dynamics will all land naturally on your first listen. The third track “Eschilo” stars acoustic, creating the album’s first breather-moment of suspenseful atmosphere, which is ripped up for a furious trem-riffage from 1:40 onwards. “Tebe” begins just as intensely but steps back from the gas in its second half, peaking once more without forgetting that it’s carved out a new space for itself. The album’s acoustic interlude “Per Jamie” leads into the centrepiece track “Ostranenie”, a perfectly paced minor epic incorporating a trumpet soliloquy before its final beatdown. Coming across this track on our Friday playlist was a lightbulb moment for me, and as the most-played single so far, I can’t be alone.
Whilst the timing of their first record’s release was unfortunate, Position | Momentum now benefits from extra years spent in the writing room. The gap has also given lyricist Rizzardo time to process himself, and “his darkest parts”, resulting in a record with more emotional weight. The full album experience comes highly recommended, as you will be able to appreciate the full record’s structure and pacing, as well as its tragic finale in “Seminario Dieci”. I’d particularly recommend this record to those who checked out Predatory Void earlier in the year, another band successfully blacken-ing hardcore music.
7.5/10
Calligram’s new album Position | Momentum releases on the 14th July through Prosthetic Records, and can be pre-ordered here (US) or here (UK).