Pupil Slicer make the kind of heavy that compelled us to resurrect “Untitled Metal Column” for the first time in over a year. We don’t use this column for any reason and only clean the mothballs off when it’s something really deserving like this London-based trio that is rightly being hailed as one of the next big things in Metal. Fer chrissakes, their name alone warrants attention to see if the music matches the moniker (Spoiler alert: It does!).
But I digress.
If “Martyrs” doesn’t get your goat in the “deserving a listen” department then we don’t know what will. Bold and positively overflowing with METAL, this beastie of an opener is almost four minutes of the best from any genre that ends in “core” and seems like a lifetime to keep up the level of intensity that Pupil Slicer seem to excel at but that’s just par for course in the world of their debut full-length, Mirrors.
Remember those guttural, animalistic yowls Corey Taylor was producing during “Scissors”, the concluding track on Slipknot’s eponymous debut? Kate Davies has that tapered yet still sounding unhinged vocal style down to a science…and it’s only the first song on here!
But if you like it short and sweet (Or maybe “short and salty” in Pupil Slicer’s world), then “Stabbing Spiders” is definitely your thang with barely a minute of noise, loudly hurled at listeners’ earholes as a follow-up. From there, stuff gets even more interesting with “L’Appel Du Vide” accenting Josh Andrews’ drumming and Davies’ riffage which ricochet off Luke Fabian’s bass boom while “Panic Defence” is simply big, bad, and blistering.
“Husk” has these Every Time I Die kinds of elements to it with some Prog-like bass bounce from Fabian with he and Davies trading biting barbs leading into the veritable sonic riot that is “Vilified”. Speaking of “Vilified”: Picture if you will droves of fans running from wherever they may be in the venue (Bad time to take a piss!) and charging the stage as these opening riffs from Davies provide the catalyst for the next greatest mosh pit ever.
“Wounds Upon My Skin” is different as it’s the first cut to really explore the more complex aspects (Read: slower) of the Pupil Slicer sound. During a short breakdown on this one, listeners will learn that Davies’ clean vocals are more scary than her monstrous wail before a pile driver of riffage enters the fray to bring back a frightful fury.
“Interlocutor” is a mind-numbing collection of cacophony that switches between decibels and rpm’s of ferocity with “Mirrors Are More Fun Than Television” delivering another dense devastator with this devious ditty lasting a whopping seven minutes to give listeners’ their most intimate look inside the innovative songwriters of Pupil Slicer. Groove-laden and Doom-filled is the aesthetic on closer “Collective Unconscious” which takes its’ foundation from “Mirrors…” and runs with it to build this monolithic banger of epic proportions in the vein of some of Converge’s more notable concluding opuses.
Mirrors arrives on March 12th through Prosthetic records. Pre-orders are up now and can be yours in a variety of formats when you click here. For more on Pupil Slicer, follow them across their social media pages by heading here, here, or here.