Maybe I am slightly biased because of my personal connections to the land where Limbs are from, but man, this record is amazing. Simply amazing in a blood-gushing brilliance, in a mysterious manner, a thoughtful form, highly atmospheric ambiance. I conclude, one of the best records I have heard in Mathcore circles in a very long time. Not because I am biased, but because Like a Poet, Keen to the Rustle of Leaves is really astonishing!
What does a record need to be considered a “masterpiece”? Let’s start of with the most obvious things: A running time long enough to keep people on the edge of their seat but not too long so that they either lean back or lose interest. The 44 minutes of Like A Poet… are just right, because we get enough chaos and twists and turns to make our heads spin, nod and wiggle at the same time. However, we also get a lot of atmosphere and here ”La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo”, the fifth track, might be the best example. Sparsely executed with only a few instruments to purvey the pulsating sun over the vast plains in the form of only a repetitive guitar lick and a steady single beat – and then we get eruptions as if the whole plain was suddenly ablaze in a volcanic fire. The ambiance is also provided through the poem in Tagalog (the most frequently used language in the Philippines) – a language which is probably unknown to most of you. The poem was written and performed by Terence Repelente, who is a friend of the trio.
The short Death Metal growls at the end are more of a disguise to lead into the next track ”Song for Swans” which has this pretty industrial intro with the elongated guitar part accompanied by a very Post-Punkish beat. Here we are at another trademark of many, many great records: They deliver musically on several different levels. Whoever heard Limbs before this release knew how good they are at bloodthirsty Mathcore – but this record gives us much more, as mentioned above. There is only one comparison that seems justified for all the different elements and that would be the highly underrated Dredg, even though Limbs most likely have never heard of the Los Gatos quartet.
But lets get back to what makes a good album a great album? Sometimes it is important that the music is backed up by some food for thought. And again, here this record serves a lot – one can download a whole short story (bit.ly/CHRONOWAR) as the backdrop to the whole record. The story is a Sci-Fi tale set in the future and comments the present and the struggle of the Filipino people – a country with a rich history, amazing culture, and mind-boggling food, but also with a lot of problems – corruption even reaching into government circles, many natural catastrophes due to the location of the Western Pacific rim, a huge part of the population living below the poverty line. Envisioning a bleak and terrifying future in this paradise setting is unfortunately not too difficult, especially as the band comes from Metropolitan Manila, one of the most densely populated cities in the world, crowded against each other between two huge separate skylines (!) and elevated skyways over the slums below.
However, there is something on this record that is hard to describe – there is a certain level of audible resilience, which is not shown by pure muscle and anger but also through some of the densely atmospheric parts, the chants and the poetic passages, which give you exactly that sense of hope that is also an important part of Filipino culture, at least those parts that I have gotten to know over the last 15 years. This is a people which loves to share, to get together and to sing, chant and perform together, even when times are grim. In that sense, this record, its majestic title and the shifty, magical music fit perfectly to the backstory - and it all comes together and lifts up spirit and soul. Their Bandcamp description is really fitting in that way: “Cultural collective from the Philippines. 2016-victory.” - so let me end with the old saying: Hasta la victoria siempre. Hanggang sa tagumpay na laging.
