THE APPLE IN THE PIG’S MOUTH, SELF-RELEASED
Vancouver’s Failing start their debut LP off with a blast, falling in line with their self-described aesthetic of ‘doom-laden noise’, but continued listening reveals something more complex. That’s because, at the heart of their songwriting, Failing is an indie rock band. They make their love of heavy music evident by the blown-out drums, squalls of heavily distorted lead, and rumbling down-tuned rhythm guitar, but occasionally sneak in a soaring, dissonant guitar lick that hearkens back to when ‘alternative’ bands (as they were known at the time) discovered metal and noise and started ladling swaths of it into their own music. Failing’s mixture mostly succeeds, but sometimes makes for an uneven listen due to the disparity between the two musical ideas. If they can learn to keep the balance between the two more consistently, they’ll have a winning formula. For now, it results in a very enjoyable listen just short of outstanding.
By David Nowacki