BORIS & UNIFORM
Bright New Disease (Sacred Bones)
Neither Boris nor Uniform are strangers to collaborations, but the former tourmates have never teamed up together on record – until now. At times, Bright New Disease manages to be more than the sum of its parts – but at others, less.
Opener You Are The Beginning is vintage old-school fist-pump thrash metal, and paler imitations Weaponized Grief and No follow swiftly after in a blur of serrated riffs and bass drum frenzy. But thereafter the energy levels drop, only briefly picking up again on Endless Death Agony. A second half blighted by the spaced-out listlessness of The Sinners Of Hell (Jigoku) and darkwave misstep Narcotic Shadow is only rescued at the death by Not Surprised, an impeccably sludgy howl into the abyss.
Ultimately, Bright New Disease betrays the circumstances of its creation as a long-distance pandemic project, sporadically gripping but also frustratingly uneven and dislocated.
words BEN WOOLHEAD
Want more music?
The latest reviews, interviews, features and more, from Wales and beyond.