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EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE: Fawn Limbs’ Languor Is Definitely Not Chill

There’s more than a touch of irony in the title of this crushing EP from Transatlantic mathgrind project Fawn Limbs. Press play on their second EP and you’ll

5 years ago

There’s more than a touch of irony in the title of this crushing EP from Transatlantic mathgrind project Fawn Limbs. Press play on their second EP and you’ll be left as far from “calm” or “tranquil” as humanly possible. Imagine waking up from a night terror soaked in sweat, breathing in a sigh of relief as reality shifts back into focus; your terror-stricken slumber now firmly in the past. Now imagine the same scenario except when you wake up, there’s a shadowy figure at the bottom of your bed gently licking beads of sweat off your toes. Or something like that, I’m unsure where I’m taking this. Make your own mind up, over the jump.

Languor follows Fawn Limbs’ devastating debut Towing Heads stylistically but delivers in a much more immediate fashion. The nightmarish sounds of opener “Marrow Compound” swiftly drop into scything grind – complete with scraping strings and lovely dissonant riff breaks, all framed perfectly by Lee Fisher’s hammer-handed percussion. His dexterity around the kit drives every beat forward alongside the chop-change riffs on “A Dim Locus”, building into a fat groove that has just enough time and space to reach its final form. The two closing tracks have a noteable cameo in the form of Baring Teeth‘s Andrew Hawkins, lending his vocal dynamics to some of the most chaotic and crushing math noise released this year, last year, or any year.

Every element of this seriously sick EP sounds fantastic, from the dirty overdriven bass and the piercing shrieks from the high-register of the guitar, to every single panned tom hit. You won’t find a crisper ride bell blast beat on either side of the Atlantic. Manning the strings, vocals, and all of the noise elements, Eeli Helin deserves a massive tip of the hat. Between Towing Heads‘ ten minutes of devastation and this five-minute blast of desolation, Helin’s strings and vocal cords push the limits of what can be achieved in a short span of time, achieving more in the five minutes of Languor than most could in a thirty minute LP. Here’s Eeli himself with a few words:

“We’re thrilled to collaborate with Heavy Blog Is Heavy and share the full stream of “Languor” with you all, two days prior to its official release this Friday!
We started working on Languor straight after the release of our first ep “Towing Heads” this past August and wanted to push our limits by bringing up the more sinister and chaotic side of Fawn Limbs. We’re ecstatic to have Andrew Hawkins providing guest vocals to two of the four tracks, and his inclusion greatly adds to the aforementioned darker tones.
We advise you to blast it out loud and stay tuned on all things Fawn Limbs, we have more exciting things coming later this year!”

You heard the man. Find Fawn Limbs on Facebook and make sure you head to their Bandcamp this Friday, lest you want the shadow creature sucking on your toes again.

Matt MacLennan

Published 5 years ago