Album & EP Reviews

Sister May – Undecided Behaviour

Sister May – Undecided Behaviour
Lay Bare Recordings
Release Date: 29/09/23
Running Time: 33:15
Review by Dark Juan
Score: 8/10

I am Dark Juan, and it appears that I have some kind of chirographic rabies. I simply cannot stop writing today and even though my fingers are rough and sore and my poor abused brain unable to come up with anything even vaguely amusing (which, to be fair, is the general state of it, for Dark Juan’s sense of humour is notably dark and esoteric and rather unique. I’ll laugh at my own jokes all night long and get confused as to why no-one else is laughing) because it has run out of metaphors and swearing to get my point across is not really an option anymore because you would then be reading an unbroken torrent of swearing and profanity and your mum will tell you that we can’t be friends anymore. And Ever-Metal Mum Beth “Cymru Am Byth” Morait will spank me again. With her “special” paddle that imprints the word “Saesneg” on to the abused, reddened, and sore posterior of the errant writer whom she is chastising this time. It is generally Dark Juan though, because Dark Juan is not easily tamed. The editorial team have only just got Dark Juan to conform to the scoring system after several years of effort and that is still no guarantee that I will actually do as I am told. They should be grateful that Dark Juan has mellowed in his old age and is not the same Hellpriest of old, where he would happily insult a whole band just because the singer had given himself a silly name (or in fact the whole band in the case of Flesh Hunter and The Analassaulters) in a sequence of deeply personal attacks that were probably a little unprofessional. 

Nevertheless, I am now the CONSUMMATE professional, and secure in the knowledge that I am as pure and virginal as the driven slush, I have activated the highly polished and meticulously engineered Platter Of Splatter ™ and engaged its drive so we can listen to Belgian Progressive Industrialists Sister May, and their debut album release “Undecided Behaviour”.

The following is a quote from the marketing and promotion blurb:

“The band’s musical style is described as a blend of provocative sounds, alternative rhythms, and mechanical noise, all presented with a modern production touch. This fusion of elements create an Industrial Punk vibe, characterized by edgy and genuine sounds that aim to offer a unique listening experience.”

I am hearing absolutely zero Punk. What I am hearing is a highly polished sound, and a distinct similarity to “Short Bus” and “Title Of Record” era Filter. ‘The Kneep’ is ample evidence for this, with a loud-quiet-loud dynamic and a slowly building menace very reminiscent of Richard Patrick’s motley band of misfits, as is album opener ‘The Floater’, although this track has a strange, otherworldly 80s feel that would not be out of place on, say, the soundtrack of The Lost Boys. As you are all no doubt aware, Dark Juan is something of a fan of that vampire punk film, so this should be taken as a large plus, what with the Post Punk vibes going on with this song. There are elements of other bands from the late 80s/ early 90s/ the Noughties in the sound of Sister May – Dark Juan can hear quite a lot of Nitzer Ebb and a bit of KMFDM in there as well. ‘Headshot’ is the song that sounds the most like a Nitzer Ebb/ Filter analogue, with buzzing, squelchy keyboards and scratchy, serrated guitar work and electronic drums until the admittedly fucking HUGE chorus that is ably deployed with this song which ramps up the heaviness nicely. So far, so good. We are on to a winner with the first few tracks. Whilst the music is by no means unique, it’s very well executed and Dark Juan always has considerable respect for bands who do not compose lyrics in their native language (Sister May are Belgian but write and perform in English). The heaviness the band are capable of rears its ugly head on ‘Guts’, which is a harder-edged, more visceral song than the first few on the album which focuses more on a percussive assault on the senses rather than the slithering menace that Sister May have previously displayed on “Undecided Behaviour”. However, ‘Borderline’ is an absolute cracker of a song, all jackhammer percussion and sheer fucking aggression that owes as much to Joy Division (with the alienation described in the lyrics) as it does to the heyday of highly polished Industrial Metal. The middle part of the song is a grinding, slow battlewagon of music that crushes picked-clean human skulls underneath its mud-spattered, diesel fuel-stained caterpillar tracks.  ‘Dope’, when it speeds up instead of being a little too deceptively cute for its own good, reminds Dark Juan of a certain M. Manson Esq. with its combination of slithering verse and explosive chorus and sinuous writhing although the end of the song explodes out of the shiny, polished aluminium vibe the record has previously shown to become a savage biomech beast intent on absolutely fucking destroying the listener and this makes it a perfect closer to the album.

I do have a gripe, though. The record is ably produced with everything clearly heard, but it’s too clean and a bit lifeless. There’s enough emotion and rage in the music to allow a dirtier sound and have a bit of good old-fashioned organic malice in there yet still retain machine-like precision. It’s a minor niggle though because we should remember that this is a debut long player, and considered as such it’s a fucking blinder of a release and one that has much to offer most fans of Metal in general, unless they are fat guys of a certain age who are still wearing greyed-out Rainbow t-shirts from 1982 who think that there has been no good music post “Slip Of The Tongue”.

They are wrong.

The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System (Le système breveté de notation des éclaboussures de sang Dark Juan pour nos amis belges francophones. I would have done it in Flemish too but there’s no Google Translate for that. My apologies, my Flemish-speaking friends) awards Sister May 8/10 for an excellent debut record that is slightly flawed but is also a fantastic listen if you like polished and streamlined Industrial Metal. Sister May have serious potential.

TRACKLISTING:
01. The Floater
02. Headshot
03. Dust Devil
04. Guts
05. Borderline
06. Sworn
07. The Kneep
08. Dope

LINE-UP:
Try as I might, I can’t find any information on who is in this band. Therefore, they are all called Dave, according to my theory that every band, no matter where in the world they are from, has had a Dave in it at some point.

LINKS: