Band Of The Day #25 - ¡FORWARD, RUSSIA! "Spanish Triangles"
Speak to ¡Forward, Russia! these days, and they’ll shake their heads and tell you how they have no idea how they managed to get as far as they did following their first album, Give Me A Wall. The phrase they tend to use is ‘overachieve’. Which is both quite a wonderful thing to hear – a band discussing their success in a grounded and thoughtful manner – and also impossibly amusing. It wasn’t a case of overachieving whatsoever last time round; more a case of a band getting its rare, justified dues for creating a record as extravagantly, feet movingly, head-spin inducingly fantastic as GMAW was.
Last year saw the release of a one-sided etched 10” piece of vinyl entitled ‘Don’t Be A Doctor’ whose seven and a half minutes of multi-part delirious math metal (with a tune, natch) pointed someway towards what could be expected next time around. That summer, the band decamped to Seattle to record their second disc with Matt Bayles, the man behind albums by Blood Brothers, Minus The Bear and many others. Life Processes is in part a departure for the band from their earlier works, but in many more ways a development and continuation. Fuller, harder and more considered a piece of work, it encapsulates all that is progressive and good about ¡Forward, Russia! whilst retaining the key qualities that made them such a fantastic anomaly the first time round.
‘Spanish Triangles’ is the album closer, a mile wide in scope full of keening guitars, building grandeur and glorious explosion. It’s not entirely a summation of the record that will be released in the UK this April and worldwide over the following months, but it gives a fine idea of what the band can and are achieving. Download and marvel.
- Download: ¡Forward, Russia! - 'Spanish Triangles'
- Drowned in Sound
