Raw and exciting.
“Bow and Quiver” is full of raw, lo-fi, punk infused anthems, vocally reminiscent of mewithoutYou and often bringing to mind Fucked Up; a mix of spoken, gruff punk-styled shouting and gang vocals. Musically this is combined with fast drums, fuzzy guitars and great melodies for an intense mix of sounds from alt-rock to old school punk to keep you listening.
The album hooks you straight away, fitting into a space reserved for comfortingly familiar and interesting and different. Sometimes jagged, off-kilter rhythms, slightly downbeat at times but at others uplifting and anthemic. ‘New York’ feels very mewithoutYou, plaintive brass, emotive spoken style vocals breaking into fuzzy riffs and a memorable chorus; ‘Evasion Tactics’ has an old school Dischord feel both lyrically and musically; ‘Billboards’ is loud and intense and emotional and brings to mind the aggression of Black Flag era Henry Rollins vocally. ‘Rogue Island’ has a poppier feel with duel vocals, a great main riff and catchy melody making it danceable and easy to sing along to. Final two tracks ‘The Grimmerie I... ’ and ‘The Grimmerie II...’ are fantastic; bringing all the sounds on the album together, the former moving in stages through slow and deliberate to sweeping waves of noise and the later having a poppy nostalgic feel, drifting away at the end into acoustic guitar and fading brass and echoing the lyrics and melody of track one right at the end.
It’s hard to fault this record; an inventive use of ideas born from many influences, great tunes and vocals and intelligent lyrics, coupled with a rawness that makes it all sound brand new and very exciting and all played and put together very, very well, to make, overall, a cohesive and satisfying experience. This record is very addictive. It stays with you, meaning you want to hear it over and over.