Pristina

Khe Sanh EP

Written by: PP on 24/09/2008 18:37:04

Pristina was formed in 2003 with the objective to make honest, aggressive and thought provoking music as a means to express frustration, isolation, hope, and raw emotion in general. To an extent, that goal has been materialized on the band's second EP "Khe Sanh", a dark, challenging, desperate, atmospheric record that draws equally much influence from Converge as they do from the dark realms of Today Is The Day.

The first song "Salt Water Cthulu" gives the listener a crash-course on how chaotic hardcore is supposed to sound like. Vocalist Duff sounds like Converge's Jacob Bannon at his coarsest, shouting lung-piercing screams at low levels to forge the chaotic atmosphere, which consumes the entire EP. The riffs soar and crash all around the soundscape, paying all kinds of tributes to the chaos gods, and the solid drumming holds the song together just barely. It's still a great song if you ask me, and the same continues on "Because I Can Kill You", which focuses a little more on blast-beat hell and low-tuned shredding, though. Soon enough, the dark, evil, but nonetheless beautiful atmosphere takes the lead role, as heard on "Vierendelen". Here's where you might recognize musical references to The Psyke Project and Today Is The Day, where the beautifully experimental hardcore passages of the former meet the twisted, devilish sound of the latter.

So far so good, but then we have "Wolf Spider" and its stupendously annoying dissonance and nonsensical sound effects, which wouldn't be out of place on a Vverevvolf Grehv album, and lets remember that I rated that record 1/10. Seven minutes full of terrible feedback that forces you to check if your stereo just broke down. Frankly, I have no idea what the song is doing on the CD, because it's fucking terrible.

Anyway, overall Pristina have crafted a fine starting point for a long career in metallic chaos hardcore. The songs are chaotic enough to satisfy the needs of any Converge/The Psyke Project fan out there, but the band is still missing the haunting passages, the moments of peace, where chaos truly contrasts the beautiful. Once this department is further fine-tuned and incorporated into their sound, we're onto something really good. For now, it's merely a record that performs well in its genre, even if it falls slightly short of the big leagues.

Download: Salt Water Cthulhu
For the fans of: Converge, The Psyke Project, Today Is The Day
Listen: Myspace

Release date September 2008
Bombfarm Records

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