You’d be forgiven for not being well acquainted with Frail Body. Dropping their twenty-one-minute debut album A Brief Memoriam towards the tail end of 2019; the Midwestern trio barely got a chance to tour their gut-wrenching blackened post-hardcore before the world ground to a halt. Frail Body, alongside other acts such as Portrayal of Guilt and Closer, are helping to breathe new life into and clear the stigma around the screamo genre. Now swiftly approaching five years later, the band are continuing to explore extremely heavy themes with suitably heavy music whilst expanding their range on their follow up effort.
Artificial Bouquet screams to life with opening track ‘Scaffolding’, bludgeoning the listener with oppressive blast beats, dissonant tremolo guitars and pained high-pitched black metal howls. The tension is tightly wound from the start, ready to snap at any moment. ‘Scaffolding’ sways from the oppressive blackened atmospherics to a choppy post-hardcore rhythmic swing, Lowell Shaffer’s vocals deteriorating into incoherent ramblings. Immediately followed by ‘Berth’, pushing into more aggressive and unhinged territory with higher tempos. The instrumental has grown in complexity, embracing the math side of the midwestern emotional hardcore influence for more volatile technicality.
The sudden pace change in ‘Critique Programme’ is akin to hitting a brick wall. Succumbing to a heavy bass groove, primal percussion and the atmospheric embrace of the guitars; brief flashes of the blackened blast beat intensity, jolting back and forth between them and a post-hardcore groove. Despite the blasts, the tempo remains steady, building to a chest pounding crescendo wrought with catharsis. Second single ‘Devotion’ further explores the ambient textures, diving into post territory, yet Shaffer’s vocals still add turmoil to the dazzling atmospherics. It’s a fitting avenue of exploration that they dabbled with on the debut, with post-rock/metal compositions typically being highly effective when portraying complex feelings.
“...teetering on the edge of devastation. ”
The production of Artificial Bouquet is fantastic, marking a step up from the already stellar production of their debut. Produced, engineered and recorded by Pete Grossman (Veil Of Maya, Weekend Nachos, HATE) and mastered by Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Joyce Manor, Loma Prieta), the combination of the two have hit the nail on the head for Frail Body. The low-end rumble of Nic Kuczyski’s bass is full-bodied and crisp, with a touch of bite on it but with plenty of mid-high twang to capture the detail of the more complex bass runs. Nicholas Clemenson’s drums are clean as hell, from the pummelling kick and crack of the oppressive snare blasts to the airy shimmer of the cymbals. The variance of Lowell Shaffer’s guitar tones sound pristine, each standing out and having their own energy; from the atmospheric effect saturated tremolo to the raw, unfiltered, isolated clean tones. The vocals cut across the mix like a knife, the emotive black metal howls and unhinged rambling sounding suitably abrasive, teetering on the edge of devastation.
‘Monolith’ returns to the unrestrained screamo, blurring the lines further between post-hardcore and melodic black metal. Launching into ferocious d-beat, frenetic drum fills and sharp power chords, collapsing into an angular break. Lead single “Refrain” captures everything right from the band’s debut, unstoppable math-tinged post-hardcore at insane tempos. The vocals walk a fine line trying not to completely fall apart, the push/pull nature of the track sucking the air from the listeners lungs. ‘No Resolution’ strips away some of the blackened chaos and sits in an old-school post-hardcore world, even dropping a spoken word passage in the middle of the track, keeping the guitars relatively clean and the instrumental stays more restrained whilst retaining an anthemic drive.
“It almost feels like they’re picking up where Oathbreaker left off all those years ago”
Frail Body have done an excellent job pacing the album. Whilst the singles absolutely work on their own terms, as do most of the tracks, this album was meant to be experienced as a whole. Songs seamlessly flowing into one another, crafting a long form journey through the forty odd minutes of nail-biting anguish. At around twice the length of their debut, it was a slight concern that the raw vulnerability would be too much, but the band successfully allays those fears by embracing further elements of post-rock and post-metal. It almost feels like they’re picking up where Oathbreaker left off all those years ago with their cult classic final album Rheia, sitting somewhere between them, Touche Amore and Loma Prieta.
Final single ‘Horizon Line’ teases some repetitive, frenzied fills before breaking into further d-beat and pained howls. Tonnes of momentary melodic guitar hooks are thrown at the wall in-between atmospheric dissonance and fast paced power chords. ‘Another Year Removed’ acts as an instrumental interlude, comprised of just guitar and bass, the melodic counterpoint shared between the two curating dreamy soundscapes. Piano pipes in slowly towards the end of the interlude until guitar feedback overwhelms and bleeds into album finale ‘A Capsule in the Sediment’. The song careens from blackened frailty to a monstrous punchy groove repeatedly, playing with textures, band members dropping out then all back in for an uncompromising climactic swell, saturated in feelings of sadness and defeat. The final moments feel like they’re building to one final earth-shattering climax that never lands, the guitar delay begins to oscillate and overwhelm everything when it suddenly drops away, leaving bass ringing out into the darkness, alone.
Frail Body manage to successfully expand on their lightning in a bottle debut one Artificial Bouquet without blowing a gasket from the extended distress. Always driving forwards without outstaying its welcome, never looking back whilst continually tapping into deep rooted vulnerability and trauma. The band take you on a poignant journey, wildly powerful, heartbreaking and cathartic in equal measure. This is the sound of modern screamo and hopefully it is here to stay.