Daughters

DISCOGRAPHY

Canada Songs (mini, 2003) 5/10

Hell Songs (2006) 5.5/10

Daughters (2009) 7/10

You Won't Get What You Want (2018) 7.5/10

   From Providence, Rhode Island, the grindcore trio As the Sun Sets featured Alexis Marshall on vocals, Jeremy Wabiszczewicz on guitar, and Jon Syverson on drums. Not long after their formation, the band added a second guitarist, Nicholas Andrew Sadler, and a bassist, Pat Masterson, to form a new project called Daughters. 

   In 2002, Daughters debuted with an EP as long as a single (a little over four minutes), then in 2003 they would release an LP just a little bit longer than a single (a little over eleven minutes). The EP Daughters and the mini-LP Canada Songs commit to the same elements of noise, math-rock, and grindcore. 

   Though the painstaking musicianship is indisputable, the music's range in creativity is often frustrated, as every moment of suspense is cut short by another manic punch of smashing drums, dissonant riffs, and squawking vocals. As soon as the first minute of the album passes, one can predict how the rest of it pans out. This is why Ghost with the Most is easily the best piece on Canada Songs — the last two-thirds of the song opt for a prickly groove that stumbles out beyond mumbling and (just occasional) screaming, breaking the traditions of every other song-structure on the record, which is just "be loud," then "be quiet for a fraction of a second," then "okay, now be loud again." 

   It's mostly the brevity of the record that hinders the music's impact. Had any of the quiet and suspenseful bits been elaborated upon or simply played longer, the splurges of loudness could have been more gratifying. 

   With Hell Songs, the band improved more than in terms of providing a decent runtime (twenty-three minutes). The best change was a drop of the compositional style from the previous releases: less congestion of slamming noise-core — there are dynamic grooves of queasy, angular, and scratchy guitar-interplay to raise tension, which helps the frenzies be more cathartic. Another important change was in Marshall's vocals, as he dropped the predictable screeching in favor of slurring drunken hollers like those of David Yow or Jon Spencer. 

   The lingering math and grindcore influences persist in every song (at times to a fault, as the bass-drum occasionally gets annoying), but novelties arise in the horn and string accompaniments on Providence by Gaslight and the last few seconds of Recorded in a Pyramid; the psychodramatic mantra ("Love is a disgusting thing!") in Hyperventilationsystem; and especially the post-rock soundscapes in Cheers, Pricks. Even when the band returns to styles more like their earlier releases, as in X-Ray or Feisty Snakewoman, the barrage of jabbing riffs and sputtering cymbals are more exciting when they're surrounded by (comparatively) less aggressive counterparts. 

   The LP Daughters peaked the band's psychobilly and grindcore qualities, offering the sonic density of noise-rock, the restlessness of hardcore punk, and the growling timbres of a metal album. 

   The droopy call-back harmonies in The Dead Singer are reminiscent of Children of God-era Swans; the pub-like "Hey!" harmonies of Sweet Georgia Brown evoke a distorted impression of the Gun Club or the Cramps; the instrumental hook for The Hit has the siren-like guitar dissonance reminiscent of Arab On Radar; and the droning organ that emerges in the latter half of The Unattractive Portable Head depicts a gothic side to their music as well. 

   The growing sophistication of their songwriting is apparent, and yet the band doesn't quite hit a level of maturity to that of their influences (like say, the Jesus Lizard). But the record for sure sets a violent and likeable impression, and a distinct identity for them that did not exist before.

   Following arguments about their upcoming album, the band would break up and then reform, hinting at various studio experiments and recording throughout the period of 2009 to 2018. 

   Recorded nine years after their alleged break-up, You Won't Get What You Want featured a new fixation on industrial suspense instead of complex mathcore rhythms, although the climaxes are just as bombastic as their previous releases. 

   The record opens with the theatrical arrangement of City Song, which takes four and half minutes to unleash its full-bodied assault of writhing guitars, painful grunts, and tribal drums before being abruptly cut off to an isolated exhibition of Marshall's sedated muttering. Though the detonation of this 4:30 mark is cathartic, the horror in its build-up is more interesting: it begins with a fast and secluded electronic bass and drums which mimic the palpitations of a beat from Suicide (that also tricks first-time listeners to turn the volume up); then the stillness is shattered by a snare drum so loud and bright you can practically see gunsmoke, and the threat of its return stirs an enfeebling anticipation, as hearing it becomes like enduring a jumpscare; then as a heavier layer of electronic bass drapes the already dark and ominous landscape, we hear the first vocals from the otherwise jaunty and obnoxious Alexis Marshall giving an understated series of spoken-word reflections, but as he proceeds mumbling in the foreground, one can hear his overdubs buried in the backdrop gasping, yelping, and whimpering, as if his repressed and panicked conscience is struggling to be let out; and on top of all this, the addition of what resembles squealing drills reinforce the industrial ambiance. 

   Meanwhile the immediate detonation of Long Road No Turns jump-starts the most visceral song on the album; now the suspense is held in constant, steady motion with robotic attacks of scratchy guitars and the same loud snare drum, the beat so dense that the sound creates a sort of claustrophobia. 

TOP 10 SONGS

• 1. The Reason They Hate Me (2018)

  2. Long Road No Turns (2018)

  3. Satan in the Wait (2018)

  4. Guest House (2018)

  5. City Song (2018)

  6. The Hit (2010)

  7. The Lords Song (2018)

  8. The Dead Singer (2010)

  9. Our Queens (2010)

  10. Less Sex (2018)

EXTERNAL LINKS

• Mini-doc on the making of You Won't Get What You Want (link)