French Garage Punk band BENDER have released their latest unique album The Crowd Growls, The Crown Falls – a record which follows a narrative script detailing inner descent into hell.
The first album from BENDER since the quartet became a trio, the group’s latest effort was recorded from December 2019 to January 2020, and marks a new creative impetus. With the band consisting of three lead vocalists, the members are thus also three individual composers moving for a deeply collective work on this record. Featured guests include Alexis Noël as a saxophonist, Cécile Mathey-File on violin and Mohamed Mahdar contributing vocals.
The album’s concept following the theme of an inner descent into hell dictates its structure, presenting the different steps of a paranoid mechanism in which a subject in search of persecutive figures is trapped.
The Crowd Growls, The Crown Falls truly represents the group’s refusal to be defined by and confined to one singular musical genre, instead carving out their own signature style with points of thrilling tempo change and diverse composition.
Opening with the instantaneous and Punk offensive ‘Neuralgic Point,’ songs like ‘A King’s Fall‘ leans into a contrasting energy and sound. Flipping between a high of up-tempo furious guitar work to beautifully drawn out strings, the track rounds off with much lyrical pondering: “Could it be an answer?”
Psychedelic mid-tempo ‘You Waste It‘ swims among a mellow soundscape with hypnotic vocals whereas ‘Cobra’s Letter‘ is a track which packs bite – an erratic and fiery one-shot that leaves a scorching hot impact accompanied by its dark and gloomy lyrics.
The seven-minute epic abyssal dive ‘Alas, Alas, Adieu‘ is the grand finale completing the album, its intricate driving beat flowing free with a tribal vibe before dissipating into rockier territory sonically. Gritty and somewhat ominous, this track is the epitome of a journey – a story that just feels so fitting as the record’s farewell.
BENDER have shaped a new aesthetic line for themselves on this latest record – we are loving their experimental and wildly creative edge and are looking forward to see how they command and mould genres to fit their own bold and brilliant style in the future.
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The Crowd Growls, The Crown Falls is available to purchase now.
TRACK LISTING:
- Neuralgic Point
- I Bet You
- Iggy Pop Became A Horrific Monster
- A King’s Fall
- Incantations
- You Waste It
- Toxic Waves
- Cobra’s Letter
- Freaking Out
- Snake And Go Nuts
- The Humanity’s Final Canticle
- Purple Tales
- Alas, Alas, Adieu