Review: This Love Is Drone ‘Angst, Anguish & Agnes’
Angst, Anguish & Agnes – An intriguing album title will always grab my attention, and I’d love to know who Agnes is and why she causes the Canadian four piece, This Love Is Drone, so much angst and anguish, but as long as she does, and they keep producing this level of decent music, then I’m all for it – haha!
This was an Instagram discovery for me, and now here I am writing a review of their debut album, as they immerse themselves in the world of horror and doom, to create stoner rock songs that have something different about them. Opener Agnes has a delightful opening riff; slow, brooding and building up tension, but it’s the background noise that intrigues me as it’s laden with heavy synths and freaky vocals.
Another sonic blast wakes you up on Thicken Up That Soup! with the slow, undeniably Sabbath-esque riff, that epitomises the genre. But when the main riff hits, it fully grabs your attention as the instrumental song flows effortlessly before the dreamy Oryan picks you up on a little white fluffy cloud and takes you soaring high into the air. The synths are engaging and add something refreshing to the overall sound, with the quartet working in unison to create songs that are easy to listen to.
The space age, trippy feel is out in force again on The Devil’s BBQ with guitarist Matt Gridley adding some vocals this time, that might sound a bit strange at first, but the alien type warbling fits in with the atmospheric nature of the music. It feels like an out-of-body experience in parts, however, you are dragged back into reality with The Wind. This has a hugely enjoyable bass line from Scott Riching, but is over far too quickly as I’d have liked to have heard it develop and grow further.
slow, brooding and building up tension…
Ethan Hawke sees drummer Kris Roszel take the lead, before the other three join us to create a soundscape that will have your ears taking in a plethora of pleasing and unique noises. I can picture lasers being shot as I listen to this one before a more traditional stoner rock beginning rings out at the start of The Divide. I do like the fact that they keep their songs short and sweet, as some bands can take it too far at times, but as I said previously, I would like to see them develop some of their ideas into longer, more drawn-out affairs, just to see what happens.
The final track is called Muckman! and has a very bizarre opening section, so I’ll let you listen to that to find out, but then the synth sound from Shane Cinq-Mars takes over, and you can sense that this is them puffing out their chests and saying ‘yes, this is us, doing what we love’. I really do like this song, as it drifts along smoothly before you get an injection of pace and liveliness, and just like that, it ends!!!
But hold on, it’s not quite over, as they have three bonus tracks to tease us with. Orion, a synthed up cover of Metallica’s classic, not the full version of course, which is very interesting to listen to, Satan Is With Us is a fuzzed-out mass of feedback and commotion, and It Will Never Leave (Agnes’ Theme) sees the continuation of their ideas come to fruition. And all this has done is made me want to speak to Agnes.
Label: Northern Haze
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram
Scribed by: Matthew Williams
