Slang – Glory Outshines Doom (Prank Records)
Historically, the number of bands who can craft an album a quarter-century after their inception that could be considered equal or superior to their early output would be such a rarity that, were somebody attempting to offer a quanitification, it might come off as a statistical anomaly.
Slang – Glory Outshines Doom (Prank Records)
Historically, the number of bands who can craft an album a quarter-century after their inception that could be considered equal or superior to their early output would be such a rarity that, were somebody attempting to offer a quanitification, it might come off as a statistical anomaly. Not so Slang, a Sapporo-based hardcore band who, with every successive release since their start in 1988, have managed to improve the quality of their output, picking, choosing, borrowing, and blending subcultural currents into a totality that becomes more streamlined and seamless each time.
While their longevity would hardly paint them as dilettantes, their music has at different points leaned more strongly towards particular variants of hardcore than at others. Their early work blended the speed of their countrymen Kuro and The Execute with the rough metallic clangor of UK stenchcore, a la Hellbastard and and Axegrinder, while their 90s material took a turn towards tougher New York-style hardcore (a period that witnessed them touring with Agnostic Front and Madball). More recent releases have demonstrated something of a return to their initial approach, albeit with far better production and a heightened emphasis on the sort of melody and catchiness that made the Japanese Burning Spirits bands memorable.
Though the band’s syncretism is better honed than on any previous release, distinct elements do present themselves clearly enough, and each serves to maximize the songs’ visceral impact. Not many studs-and-spikes crust bands would start an album with what, in most other songs, would have been the breakdown. Most who would start an album with a breakdown wouldn’t switch over to d-beat passages to conclude a song. And the vast majority of bands trading in either wouldn’t have the songwriting prowess to make it work. But Slang’s sonic palette is hardly monochromatic, and each seemingly disparate component counterbalances and contrasts the other.
Unlike on their previous two full-lengths, Glory Outshines Doom offers little in the way of lyrical in-roads for those lacking a grasp of Japanese, with only the title song and “Happy Birthday To You” bearing English titles. Given the album’s title and the band’s previous releases, an assumption that the lyrical slant balances the sort of despairing excoriation of the world’s degradations with a sense of tough, triumphant defiance probably isn’t far off-base. But lacking the linguistic skills to determine more exactly, that’s only a guess (likely a safe one given their output thus far, however).
Though a point by point analysis of Slang’s component elements and influences can certainly offer some insight into their craft, the left-brained approach is only part of the picture. For all that the band borrows, each piece is utilized for its ability to elicit the sort of visceral reaction from a listener that can’t be easily summed up in print. Though the band lacks neither precedent nor contemporaries, their music possesses both the sort of undeniable force and practiced finesse that can only come with years of dedicated work. For the past decade or so, the band has offered up a steady stream of releases, each of which could have been described as their best to date. Glory Outshines Doom stands as no exception, and while the album is outstanding on its own, the sense that Slang has only taken one step towards something even better still proves just as compelling.
