High Parasite – Forever We Burn
High Parasite – Forever We Burn
Candlelight Records
Release Date: 27/09/24
Running Time: 40:27
Review by Dark Juan
4,382,019,909/10
“She lost her wings to the oral things game…”
Funny how and when inspiration strikes. I was balls deep in a forty-page report at work and that line sprung, unbidden, into my imagination, complete with melody line and intonation and this set off an entire song’s worth of lyrics instead of the complex thing I was supposed to be doing. I haven’t had inspiration like that in many years. It was easy to picture the likes of Claudio Sanchez singing it as Dark Juan a) sounds like a cat that has been set on fire when he sings despite sounding fucking PERFECT in my own head, and b) has the same musical and songwriting ability as Moo Deng the baby hippo. Yes, I am musically inept, which is why I write about it instead.
The problem with those words is that I have just completed a 136-hour working week this week and that fucking lyric has been distracting me for the ENTIRE time I was working, including Fire Marshal training, which was run by a man who I knew was called Nigel before he even introduced himself, just by looking at him. XTC’s plans for him didn’t really work, it seems. I mean he isn’t working for British Steel…
There isn’t really a point to the above except that I am under the misapprehension that I have formed a fanbase over many years of drivel and doggerel and that anyone actually cares about what I write, having convinced myself I have a form of positive relationship with people who read these missives.
I also owe High Parasite an apology. This review was meant to be written before the release of the album but, unfortunately, work got in the way. Sorry, guys.
However, these are exciting times, and I have released the febrile and trembling Platter of Splatter™ from confinement. Upon it is spinning the latest offering from the Gothic Doom royalty (and occasional drinking buddy) that is Aaron Stainthorpe, and his latest band, High Parasite, about which he is at pains to point out that, “This is not a side project. It’s a new touring and recording band, and with “Forever We Burn”, our debut studio album, we’re showing our love for all things gothic and grand, along with a collective belief that dark music doesn’t have to be confined to the shadows.”
That’s a quote from the man himself.
Now, High Parasite is a major departure from the achingly slow, emotional overload of My Dying Bride, so put out of your mind any similarities with those Yorkshire legends and their Gothic magnificence. High Parasite are rather more… Deathpop.
Yes, tempos have been increased and Stainthorpe extends his vocal capacities on this strange amalgam of Paradise Lost and Sleep Token, ranging from predatory snarling, aggressive barking and some of the most lugubrious baritone crooning I have ever heard. I mean, pit Stainthorpe and Peter Steele together in a Goth girl knicker dropping contest using only their voices and I feel you’re going to have a dead heat.
Lugubrious indeed, on ‘My Syndrome’. Aaron’s vocal effortlessly sweeps from caressing, warm tones to visceral spitting and the music is magnificent.
And so, it continues throughout the album – ‘Hate Springs Eternal’ has Stainthorpe singing cleanly and in a slightly higher register than we are used to with his usual Mogadon-tinged moodiness, and the world of difference it makes to the Paradise Lost-esque (circa “Draconian Times” and “One Second”) music is palpable and has set Dark Juan’s skin ablaze with goose pimples and my spine all a-shiver.
There’s another link with Paradise Lost as well, insofar as the production of this album has been handled by another legend of Yorkshire – one Gregor Mackintosh, who has also contributed some signature guitar lines to the album. You’ll be able to tell which ones they are. No, seriously. Greg has a seriously distinctive style, and his work only enhances what is a real departure from the usual fare that Aaron and MDB normally serve us with. It still pisses me off that I was designated driver when I met him, and I couldn’t drink with him.
There are times where, and I can’t believe I am going to write this, the music is actually upbeat – on the single ‘Let It Fail’, for example, the music whistles along at a fairly brisk pace and is enhanced by a chorus of such majesty Dark Juan is salaaming piously before it, and Dark Juan bows down to no one.
High Parasite differ from Aaron’s day job significantly as the band bring Electronic, Industrial and Post-Punk influences to the music, which skirts perilously close to the borders of Metal, Goffik Rock and Synth Pop in places, yet avoids teetering over the brink into an easily categorised genre and therefore retains interest and uniqueness, mainly because your good correspondent has no fucking idea where Stainthorpe and bassist and songwriter Tombs are going to take their chimerical beast next. The intro to ‘We Break We Die’ is almost Darksynth, what with its growling, robotised bassline and Electro drumbeat. It’s a monster of a track as well and makes sure the album ends on the most incandescent of highs.
Which it does. Fuck yes.
FUCK.
YES!
It’s such an interesting and exciting listen, this album. It really feels like Aaron is delighted in this chance to broaden his horizons after thirty years of abject misery with My Dying Bride, even though in real life he is a surprisingly chipper and approachable chap, and truly open his throat and be expansive, rather than his usual melancholic, misanthropic style. The man is truly unleashed on this record, and this lends the band some serious fucking energy as they tear through songs with abandon. My only gripe is that the cymbals were too loud in my left ear. One of my favourite things is the fucking ASTONISHING bass tone Tombs has on the record. It is truly magnificent, as are the hook laden, absolutely colossal choruses. Ah tell thee, if this record dun’t mek it big, there’s no justice, lad.
Truly a record for the ages and something that has thrown what was a fairly set list of top albums of the year right on its fat, self-satisfied arse and now I must reconsider it again, and I haven’t even listened to the upcoming Chronicles Of Manimal And Samara album yet.
In short, this album is genius from start to finish and is also accessible as fuck as well as being musically dense and rich and varied and sufficiently complex to satisfy the most discerning of listeners. It will cross fanbases too – it’s Gothic enough for the taffeta and black lipstick brigade, Metal enough for the denim and leather clad masses, accessible enough for the neophyte and complex enough for Prog fans too.
The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System has caused yet another environmental catastrophe because of its unbridled enthusiasm and awards High Parasite 4,382,019,909/10 for a record that transcends itself on a song-by-song basis.
See you next time you are in The Blind Pig, Aaron.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Forever We Burn
02. My Syndrome
03. Grave Intentions
04. Wasn’t Human
05. Concentric Nightmares
06. Hate Springs Eternal
07. Parasite
08. Let It Fail
09. Widowmaker
10. We Break We Die
LINE-UP:
Vocals – Aaron Stainthorpe
Bass – Tombs
Rhythm guitar – Sam Hill
Lead guitar – Jonny Hunter
Drums – Dan Brown
LINKS:
