LP - $19.40
STREET DATE: 4/21/23
CAT#: CRR189
LABEL: Church Road
galore (/ɡəˈlɔː/) - adjective: in abundance.
Formed in the bygone barren period for British rock music that were the nascent 2010s, The St Pierre Snake Invasion have consistently shown themselves to be an unapologetically creative force.
Spearheaded by their frontman, and founding member Damien Sayell, the band have gone from strength to strength since the release of the Flesh EP (July 9th 2011) with a slew of beloved and increasingly daring releases, all bolstered by incendiary and enigmatic live shows.
The long gap between debut album, A Hundred Years A Day (October 31st 2015) and the release of underground sophomore smash Caprice Enchanté (June 21st 2019) was something the five-piece were reticent to repeat, but circumstance beyond the Bristolians' control dictates that third LP, Galore, comes to us in a markedly different world than the one in which St Pierre were building their reputation and acclaim.
Sayell himself has been adamant that this latest offering would not be a COVID album. He did not want it to address the ubiquitous isolation of global lockdown. It immediately would date the record to a fixed point in time and not allow its ideas to flourish and find a receptive audience for a continued period. Instead, the changes represented in Galore are so fundamentally powerful and relatable to the human condition. It is an album centered around universally resonant themes of growth.
The summer of 2021 saw the birth of Sayell's first child. The concurrent writing of the band's third LP has, naturally, been greatly informed by the experience of impending fatherhood. Wondering about one's own impact on a life that you have been a part in creating, the anxieties of what will be passed down to another generation, and reflections on garnered wisdom with age; these are the key themes that bring us to the band's magnum opus to date.
Alongside these introspective lyrics, the band's sound has taken on new life. Where Carprice Enchanté was primarily informed by the musicality of Every Time I Die, The Chariot, Refused and Mclusky, Galore builds on this framework by incorporating influences as disparate as LCD Soundsystem, Soulwax and Meshuggah into a coherent and daring whole. A song like That There's Fighting Talk sees seething aggression taken to a mathcore nightclub, while the title track and Apex Prey see the band exploring looser, quieter melodicism alongside Sang Froid's Aisling Whiting, who brings a stake dynamic counterpart to Sayell in a beautiful and captivating performance.
There are still tracks reminiscent of the band's previous work, such as Submechano and Sleep Well - the latter featuring a sterling guest appearance from Sugar Horse's Ashley Tubb - in which we hear the brash punk attitude St Pierre's ever-growing fanbase adore. But ultimately, from the opening syncopated notes of Pete Reisner's percussion and Sayell's distinctive vocals on Kracked Velvet, it's impossible not to hear the palpable shift to another echelon of artistic uniqueness.
Ultimately, while the band explore these universal themes of growth and rumination therein and retain a distinctly 'St Pierre' sound, they are one step deeper into a marvelous career, striving for an unrivaled and unique sound. And The St Pierre Snake Invasion have that uniqueness in abundance.
TRACK LISTING:
- Kracked Velvet
- Midas
- Submechano
- Galore
- To Sleep Well
- Every Sun
- The Overlook
- Apex Prey
- That There's Fighting Talk
- I Pray To Liars
FOR FANS OF:
The Chariot, Every Time I Die, Converge, The Armed
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