Another one of those amazing new British post-metal bands that is able to be doomy, chaotic, pushing and pulling at the same time. Aerosol Jesus from Brighton sets out to capture your ears – whether they release you afterwards is yet to be decided.
In the last couple of years we were able to witness a NWOBPM – a New Wave Of British Post-Metal – with the likes of Torpor, Hidden Mothers, Wren, Hundred Year Old Man and, since their formation in 2017, Aerosol Jesus. The quintet from Brighton released their debut EP Failure in 2017 via Astral Noize Records from London.
And now they release their second EP Survive with a lot of famous support: Mastering mastermind James Plotkin put his magical finishing touches to the record and the last track “Drown” features Tanya Byrne (of Bismuth-fame). And interestingly this is not the moody duo song with the female picking up the harmonies in the background while the male vocalist screams his lungs out at the front of the stage. It’s rather somehow the opposite as the only vocals after the very well-done break and into the moody outro are his near-whispered words. Amazing way to end a record.
But the other end shows a great start to it as well, because the first track “Cowards” starts with a near math-like precision and some well-pointed riffs and some good blastbeats to end it all. These two ends also show what Aerosol Jesus likes to do: Create a kind of development throughout the course of the record – if they will be able to do that over a whole full-length remains to be seen, but here it works really well. They slowly take the foot of the gas pedal so that they finally arrive at a really dense, atmospheric finale. However, this EP is a rollercoaster ride so that it’s not a simple rolling down the slope but a steady and yet convincing spinning up and down: After the somewhat chaotic opener, second track “Survive” begins with a really rough and raw but spellbinding doomy riff so that the listener can take a short breath and they keep that up for nearly four minutes before all barriers break and the band is back to riffing out all of their despair and anger at the world. The one thing I found a bit strange was the “lalala” harmonies at the beginning of the third track “Others” because one immediately notices the dark and danger lurking behind every corner. This constant feeling of something just waiting to jump out from the dark alleyway of your soul into your present affairs is somewhat menacing and might drive a few listeners crazy. But maybe the band also wants to show that you have to face your demons. A look at the playlist is very interesting as well: “Cowards”, “Survive”, “Others”, “Just”, “Drown” - if you run away from you something, you might survive, if you face it head-first you might simply get lost in it, “it” probably being your fears. If you run away from them, you survive physically; if you face them, you drown physically. However, who tells you that “drown” here implies death as well? You might get out the other end like water running down a drain and coming out somewhere else.
When thinking about Aerosol Jesus as a band, one thing seems sure: this band is not going to drown, because they are a strong-knit group which has been together for several years now and thus they are a well-oiled machine, very precise and aware of the effect their music can have on the listener. They take us by the hand, give us some time to breath and then take us by the neck again. Their ride is not over but just beginning!
