Stella and The ‘Career Suicide’ Release.
Stella – Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
Stella, a three-piece from around Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio that are in short, a little weird. Now, don’t let that throw you because it really is in a wonderful, discordant, progressively-toned way. Imagine The Shape Of Punk To Come-era Refused mixed with elements of Big Black‘s tone and distortion thrown in with a clear contemporary Noise Rock foundation cut with eerie melodies that can only be called so within this very context.
Got that? Well, that is Stella in a nutshell but obviously there is more to it and that is only to entice you. They are Noise Rock band, certifiably so in fact but less so towards doing so for the sake of it. This is clear with the opening weirdness, sorry, distortion of ‘Subtext Graveyard’ as it forces you to envision a 90’s horror film, with the band then play with this distortion further as it rules over the subdued Refused-esque vocals.
That’s not to say the opening track doesn’t give way to its Noise Rock repertoire but rather just enough as it leads gently (within in context) to ‘Pattern Reset’ with its rhythmic build-up of intricate layers. ‘Pattern Reset’ is more vocal led with a strong Dennis Lyxzén-Jello Biafra crossover. The band capture all the intensity of their craft on recording but it is easy to see that this would indeed be tenfold live.
‘I Got One Dayne’ is another mesh of intertwined layers very much appealing to Math-Rock indulgers. Vocally the band up the ante again while the interlocking strings and now pummelling drums and brash bass-lines accompany this steady rise in aggression across the board.
‘Drill My Skull’ has early Fugazi written all over its influences with its 80’s dischordance (see what I did there) as Stella’s Noise-Pop breaks down the assault of the previous just enough. ‘Firing Squad’ begins with more Math-toned guitars and the humorously dark aesthetic the band by this point are known for. ‘Firing Squad’ is eerie and short Noise-Pop and nothing else.
‘Reality Reduction’ teases you with up-tempo percussion pounding its tinny little heart out before there really is some for of reality reduction, as what could be a cohesive track is obviously quite intentionally thrown at you in a convoluted mess sounding akin to At The Drive-In on steroids or rather playing that Jools Holland set over and over. It’s not all bad though for the song begins to forgo the vocals entirely and rather focusses on the musicianship and for that you can’t fault it.
‘Loading The Chamber’ is Noise-Pop Fugazi and a release highlight, while ‘Self Actualisation’ teases a more weighted, darker, heavier band in its bass tone and simplistic but deceptively heavy drumming that actually quite suits the Jazz-direction the strings decide on. In many ways the band capture the flirtatious weirdness of early Post-Hardcore here and alongside the synths and again, the general distortion Stella employ, it really fits very well.
And that’s it folks. Career Suicide would be its name sake if it had been curated by a Pop-band with an LSD problem but luckily it hasn’t been. What it is however is a product of band of clear skill and the courage to experiment.
If you like your Noise Rock or just general progressive guitar music, Stella add distorted and confused Pop in all the right places.
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