Math rock is a fickle genre. Because of its constant swinging below the radar, even if you’re a popular band it’s difficult to really get noticed. It’s a seemingly endless lifestyle of Tesco value pork pies for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and a curved spine from sleeping in an uncomfortable van all the time. Axes, however, are determined to transcend above all this with the release of the fabulous Glory.
Hailing from all over the place (Iran, Essex, Scotland, Denmark), Axes do seem to have an international vibe about them that only adds to their schizophrenic music. Released via Big Scary Monsters – home of Adebisi Shank, Talons, and Alpha Male Tea Party – Glory is a drunken joyride through a city designed by Daedalus.
It truly is a labyrinth throughout, with regular neck-jarring rhythms and joyful guitar licks. It may be near impossible to tap your foot along without developing some sort of carpal tunnel syndrome, but songs like ‘The One’ and ‘Monster’ are solid slabs of math rock goodness.
The vast majority of songs on Glory are full octane riots using instruments as weapons. Like the cover photo, it’s easy to imagine the four piece hurtling through a battlefield on horseback shooting lasers out of their various instruments at attacking foes. The one real break is during ‘Plan Américain’, which concludes with an impromptu Spanish guitar jam.
Axes are the perfect soundtrack to your homework. Not only is it cleverer than your subject matter, but you might actually learn something from listening to them.
7bitarcade - Archive 