Lara Korona

Land Unter

This sound is very big with those young people I keep reading about, the ones with tennis shorts and string vests at a fucking rock gig. Lara Korona are part of this scene but they have great songs, and no hipster moustaches as far as I can tell, though I could be wrong. Don't let that put you off, however, as they are fantastic. Their sound is simultaneously sharp as a wire and absolutely massive, with moments of beautiful airy notes left floating through the air, inevitably leading into a total screaming meltdown. Think of the gorilla-brainfuck dynamics of Corrupted transposed to a much smaller structure, one that is under five minutes in length, and you're there.

From what I've heard, this five track debut is miles from their earlier material, consisting of a demo and a split EP - same sort of style, screamo emo post-punk, but with everything turned to eleven.

"Mykorrhiza" is straight-forward massive post-rock, anthemic but complex drumming and giant sustained chords keeping the pace until it breaks into a small, light-as-air interlude, building slowly but steadily into a storming climax that feels like it couldn't get anymore intense, until it breaks and everything falls apart perfectly.

"Deux" is an instrumental, and sounds great on the record, but seems like it could be a little self-indulgent live. I'd be surprised if it got much of an airing - unlike the absolutely brilliant "Fest", with it's odd guitar riff giving way to an epic bass line that drives forward until it hits a brick wall, somehow keeping time but still managing to fuck with your mind a little bit. This song also has a rather spiffing breakdown, which would result in one hell of a circle pit.

On "Land Unter" and "Rast Und Einbruch", the band become a little more experimental and let go of their balls a little bit - both songs are close to ten minutes in length, and are much more 'post' than 'rock' - I'm sorry for that analogy. "Land Unter" is the stronger song, but only because "Rast Une Einbruch" is essentially an ambient track - it does have a small section of actual screaming metal, but not a very long one - and while it does go well with the rest of the songs offered here, it's just not as exciting to listen to. That said, this is a great young band with big, exciting things ahead of them, and one I will follow with interest.

#Lara Korona #Melodic Hardcore #Pike Records #Post-rock #EP #Rob Batchelor