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Rainbow Face — Enjoy This Ruin
(Bandcamp no#, 2024, DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2024-12-06

Enjoy This Ruin Cover art

With their second release, Portland, Oregon’s Rainbow Face moves into slightly different territory than presented on their excellent debut, Stars’ Blood (2020). The music on Enjoy This Ruin is more intense and visceral, though it still exhibits many of the qualities expected of progressive rock. None of the tracks is exceptionally long – two stretch a bit over eight minutes, but most are more like four to five – but there are plenty of odd meters and changes to keep things interesting. They list their influences as Black Midi, Squid, and The Smile, and I’d add The Mars Volta, though all of these serve as inspiration more than source material. The album is more of a group effort than the debut, where Jake Rose (vocals, guitar) was clearly dominant. Salvador Altamirano-Farrell (keyboards), Dominique Reveneau (bass), and Connor Reilly (drums, also of The Mercury Tree) have put together a set of six high energy tracks that are recorded to sound very live, very much like musicians playing in a room together. This is the kind of album where you should leave expectations behind and just hang on for a wild ride. There are twists and turns everywhere – not as crazy as something like PoiL, but a far cry from mainstream rock – and there are few moments of respite from the assault of sound. It’s also worth noting that as aggressive as the music is, there is no resemblance to prog metal whatsoever. This kind of heaviness is more akin to King Crimson than Porcupine Tree, and has a certain post-punk edge of thrash to it. Rainbow Face is a refreshingly different voice in the choir of modern progressive rock.

Filed under: New releases, 2024 releases

Related artist(s): Rainbow Face

More info
http://rainbowface.bandcamp.com/album/enjoy-this-ruin

 

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