Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Big/Brave, Thrill Jockey records 2023.
Big/Brave is an indie/experimental trio from Montreal, Quebec, Canada and their EP Nature Morte is the first work I’ve heard from them.
It’s not for the faint-hearted or those looking for some easy listening pleasure.
The opening track Carvers, Farriers and Knaves is a full-on assault on the senses with seven minutes of massively distorted guitars, thunderous drumming, and throat-shredding vocals.
The second track, The One Who Bornes a Heavy Load, runs to more than nine minutes and opens with a minute and a half of thrashed guitars before settling into a slow build of sparse drums and elongated distorted guitar chords.
The trio consists of Singer/guitarist Robin Wattle, guitarist Mathieu Ball, and drummer Tasy Hudson and they harness an elemental sound that is massive and heavy but in no way is it traditional heavy metal.
It’s heavy experimental soundscape that is redefining heavy metal, turning it into desolate, alien, landscapes that vary from vast expanses to suffocating prisons, and industrial wastelands.
Their music is often tense but also contains moments of languid calm, periods where we can take a breath and ponder on what we’ve just experienced.
Nature Morte is French for still life, as in paintings. The literal translation means ‘dead nature’ and this gives us some idea of the underlying meaning behind the six tracks.
There is the tension between beauty and decay, and indeed the music finds beauty in the decaying process.
I can’t help but feel there is also reference being made to our impact on natures beauty, especially via climatic destruction.
Wattle’s vocals are commanding and yet vulnerable. It’s hard to discern exactly what she’s saying but it doesn’t really matter for the emotion is still translated.
Somehow she manages to weave her way through masses of distortion, thunderous drums, and loops of feedback like a raven in a thunderstorm.
Songs like My Hope Renders Me a Fool and The Fable of Subjugation are short stories in song.
All the songs on Nature Morte question our faith, hope, and existence, but leave the listener empowered rather than impotent and depressed.
