Modern Tribes – The ‘Everything Is Dying And I Will Probably Die Soon Too’ EP.

Modern Tribes – Oswestry, England, United Kingdom.

Photography credit: Jasmine-Harding Photography – Click Here.
For Our previous work on the band’s debut – Click Here.

We first came across Oswestry‘s Modern Tribes at the tale-end of 2015. Their debut EP You Do Drugs, boasted short but punchy slab of raucous and aggressive Punk laced with enough Indie, Alternative Rock and that unmistakable British weirdness to stand the release in a world of it’s own.

If you’ve literally just listened to the debut or had done prior to this review, you now need to forget everything you know about modern Punk and Modern Tribes, because this EP quite frankly blew me away, in it’s frantic, progressive and incredible discordant chaos, making the former seem about as exciting as a rotten cabbage.

In all seriousness, You Do Drugs was great but this? This is something else…

\\ Everything Is Dying And I Will Probably Die Soon Too //

‘Pam Beesly’ actually begins on a quieter note. The bands departure from the last EP is clear from the off, with it’s “fuzzy” rhythm section and strong Indie lead-riff, it’s gritty but still relatively tame. Of course knowing this band, nothing is ever that simple and the track soon picks up in the only fashion Modern Tribes know how to, obnoxiously.

The quiet to loud – loud to quiet formula helps to convey the desperation of the primary songwriter and vocalist, Eric Evans, who in recent conversation, said that the album’s composition symbolically reflects the ‘chaotic range of emotions felt in the last six months‘.

‘Everything Is Dying’ sounds like Fugazi if they were just hitting it off. Forty-eight seconds of discordant, sporadically in-time, Punk-Rock fury – this is raw emotion into music full stop.

The wailing of ‘Holly HxC’ sits on a very simple, but very classic Punk foundation, sounding like something from late 70’s, merged with the 80’s and 90’s Post-Hardcore desperation filled vocals. In fact, the only factor tying in these tracks is the sheer emotionality throwing itself at you, unable to contain it’s rage, fury and sadness.

The band on this release, to an extent remind me of that At The Drive-In performance on UK TV show ‘Later With Jools Holland’ back in 2000, with the raw energy and recklessness of the whole thing. Never seen it? Click Here.

Both the music and the emotions have moved down the scale from “wanting” to “hating” with ‘I Hate You’. Many tracks of such a title are often banal, angsty and flat but there’s something about the emotions flowing through this release that makes this one so legitimate, that it’s terrifyingly transfixing.

‘Nothing I Will Ever Do Will Ever Mean A Single Thing To Anyone Or Anything, Or You’ takes you back to the story of the first track, but sadly the situation has deteriorated since then, and results in the most emotionally real and saddest track on the release.

‘I Know What You Did’ again moves away from the previous number like every track before it. The band have fully given themselves to Eric Evans’ songwriting, played perfectly in-sync to the emotions written-in, and emerged from the dark tunnel with a such a progressive take on their already unique Punk sound, that I don’t think anyone saw it coming.

This last track is as discordant and chaotic as the rest despite it’s slower build and hasn’t really done anything to ease the initial dumfounded expression on my face.

Find everything Modern Tribes below. I… I need to have a lie down.

• Head to Facebook and Twitter for updates.
• This release will be released digitally online from June of this year and will be found on iTunes and Spotify.
• For the band’s existing material, head to bandcamp and for music videos their Youtube Channel.
• For hardcopies and merch, catch the band live or head to BigCartel.
• For the single ‘She Said’, which was released in December 2015 as video and on a charity compilation, Click Here for the video and Click Here for the comp.

#StayFresh