Severe

The first album in five years from this Melbourne trio is characteristically dark, brutal, minimal, and drum-driven. Where the high points of My Disco's previous album Little Joy came from explosively cathartic songs like “Closer” and “Young,” Severe is more cohesive and infinitely more suspenseful. This is crisp, slow, spacious, immensely murky stuff—an update of no-wave. Alternating passages of near-silence and wrecking ball percussion. It sounds like early Swans got hired to soundtrack an 80s action film. I'm not kidding. Disappears' album Irreal is a great complement to this. Favorites: 2, 5, 6, 8. Very few words, no FCCs.

1. (8:35)—Ascending bass line, super minimal drums, repetition of the phrase “recede into silence.”
2. *(2:39)—Searing, slow pounding. Deep robotic vocals.
3. (4:07)—Calmer, sadder, with warm washes of guitar.
4. (4:46)—Slow, propulsive drums, crunching metallic guitars. Long passages of high, humming noise, and a whispered “king sound.”
5. *(7:28)—Mid-tempo. Slow to start, but builds into something ritualistic. Amazing. Long passage of guitar riffage, then builds again.
6. *(2:43)—Similar to track 2. Wailing, stone-like guitars.
7. (0:52)—Droning guitar. Ambient room sound.
8. *(6:05)—Mid-tempo. Insistent drum rolls, churning one-note bass, extremely crisp-high hat. They should have used this in The Dark Knight instead of Hans Zimmer or whatever.