The Unravelling
Tear a Hole in the Collective Vision
(self-released)

Gustavo de Beauville provides big floor tom beats and metallic guitar strikes behind Steve Moore’s plodding talk-like vocals on “The Hydra’s Heart,” beginning The Unravelling’s new album, Tear a Hole in the Collective Vision. The album’s title track is a much quieter, slinky, menacing tune, Moore barely audible at the beginning whispering over the atmospheric sounds, then doing his best Henry Rollins. There’s those big beats come again with plotting arpeggios on “The Fearless Seed” (a good harmony vocal here from Moore), one of my favorites here, a song of phoenix-like challenge. The bleeping keys of “Enough is Enough” run under a more melodic (at least at first) Moore vocal. I like the chorus chanting and the softer musical choices from de Beauville while Moore sings his best here of all the tunes. “Master Drone” sees de Beauville’s heavy hits (with again harmonies from Moore) and a single-line melody soaring in the background from an over-driven guitar. “No One’s Song” has a plucky back beat and dangerous swirl with piano lines layering through the mist, with Moore quite understated relating dripping imagery. Another favorite of mine, what I really liked about this one is that the guys kept things just on the precipice of really exploding; a nice, tight, metered approach of imminent danger. “We Have No Problems” ends with Moore’s screaming, and punk guitars flowing into de Beauville’s plinky echo guitar parts (although he does get back into heavy strumming) and though a nearly commercial chorus reminds us The Unravelling seemingly has no problems, it sounds like we all do by Moore’s account here. Good, heavy stuff from this duo.

You can listen to the album here.