Reproacher - "Nature's Bastard" (Album Review)

By: Charlie Butler

Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 03/06/2016
Label: Crown & Throne Ltd

Huge, awkward riffs dominate the landscape, their ugly, discordant racket is reminiscent of Converge at their nastiest.  This is a mighty offering, a captivating combination of savage intensity and considered dynamics.

“Nature’s Bastard” DD//LP track listing:

1). Intro

2). Celestial Blackout

3). Poisonous Miasmas

4). Garotte

5). Sundown

6). The Endless Tide

7). Futility

8). Old Blue Clay

9). Nature’s Bastard

10). The Great Equalizer

The Review:

“Celestial Blackout”, the second track of Reproacher’s new LP “Nature’s Bastard”, provides an apt description of the widescreen carnage they deliver. The track roars into life out of the smouldering ashes of “Intro”, a perfect hybrid of brooding post metal and furious, Hydra Head-style noisecore. The Wyoming bruisers mine this seam of inspiration for untold riches over the course of the album to create their distinct visceral sound.

Reproacher’s music is based on a solid foundation of gnarly noise rock heaviness but the tone shifts as the record progresses. The opening double whammy gives way to the harder edged likes of “Poisonous Miasmas” and “Garrote”. Huge, awkward riffs dominate the landscape, teeth-shaking low end and piercing high end squalls combining to emulate the punishing broken grooves of Coalesce. The tempo increases during the album’s mid-section dominated by the furious d-beat of “Sundown”. The ugly, discordant racket is reminiscent of Converge at their nastiest and peaks with a wild, adrenaline-soaked lead guitar break.

As the end approaches, the mood darkens. The title track is the closest Reproacher get to something resembling a ballad. Although the volume is dialled back and the vocals are subdued to a faraway, half-spoken drawl, the slow-burning menace exuded here is as heavy as their full-on attack. This makes the bludgeoning climax all the more crushing when it finally arrives with grim inevitability. “The Great Equalizer” continues this trajectory, falling away to near silence in the middle and building to a powerfully restrained climax, woozy chords ringing out as the band grind to a halt like a drunken cowboy.

“Nature’s Bastard” is a mighty offering from Reproacher, a captivating combination of savage intensity and considered dynamics.  

“Nature’s Bastard” is available here

Band info: bandcamp