Bokor

Anomia I

Written by: PP on 13/02/2007 12:50:33

Bokor wound up together by dreaming to themselves "OK, let's get together and play some wicked stuff, do strange things, do whatever we feel like...really use all the creativity and talent we have". "Anomia I" is their debut album and at the same time a grand realization of that dream, a record where those dreams become progressive chords, and that creativity comes across in mindblowing compositions and astonishingly complex structures which reach up to the likes of Tool and Mastodon and further.

The band opens up with a complicated opening riff that is both powerful and captivating at the same time, straight away drawing the listener into the prejudiced conclusion that 'oh this will be yet another generic metal effort'. But then in comes the singing, and a shock awaits. No growls, no screams, just a vocalist with a clean, slightly scratched voice incredibly similar to Kurt Cobain's voice, especially during the shouted/scratch-shouted parts. The lyrics are sometimes delivered with impassionate rage like during the buildups in "Crawl", and other times soothingly like in the start of "Best Trip", both songs that have infectiously catchy choruses buried underneath technically proficient, mystifying chord progressions and riffage. We're talking about the kind of geniousity rare enough to only have featured in a limited number of bands, and here I'm thinking bands like Tool, Opeth, and Mastodon.

It is always difficult to try to describe something that is so awkwardly simple in the beginning but develops into enourmous complexity over time. "The Island Of St Menee" is just that - the beginning will make you think of simplistic riffs of hard rock/post-grunge bands like Seether, but don't be fooled by the intro, as the song progresses into Tool like masturbation of slowly rising scales and Eddie Vedder-style fathomable vocal work, before the Mastodon style post-metallic repetetive riffage and oddly calming vocals take over the song and shake its foundations thoroughly. When the song finishes with the kind of twin-guitar instrumentation that it does, I'm almost crying to be able to witness such an incredible piece of stylistic and artistic perfection.

Be it the aggressive semi-growls in "Convert Into", where the band is at its ugliest and heaviest state portraying pure belief in their own capabilities, or the carefully constructed 14 minute mammoth "Migrating", the strenght of Bokor imminently lies in their ability to bury infectiously catchy vocal work underneath such complicated and varying instrumental work, where the feeling of originality and uniqueness is almost touchable. Each of the six tracks on "Anomia I" are so different from each other you would have to be deaf not to differentiate them from one another straight from the beginning. Some of them are short, some of them are medium length, some of them are mammoth like the aforementioned one, but all of them are instrumentally beautiful with the kind of soundscapes that redefine the word 'music' in a very similar way that the compositions of Tool do. There are no weaknesses in Bokor's armor, which is scary, considering this is only their debut album. I am full of confidence when I say Bokor is the most exciting, most original band to have originated from Europe in the last five years. Don't miss Bokor, one of the bands of the year.

9

Download: Crawl, The Island Of St Menee
For the fans of: Tool, Mastodon, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden
Listen: Myspace

Release date 22.01.2007
Scarlet Records
Provided By Target ApS

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