Logo
DiS Needs You: Save our site »
  • Logo_home2
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • In Photos
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Search
  • Community
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • Blog
  • Community

THIS SITE HAS BEEN ARCHIVED AND CLOSED.

Please join the conversation over on our new forums »

If you really want to read this, try using The Internet Archive.

A-Frames

Black Forest

Label: Sub Pop Release Date: 25/04/2005

8291
Mike_Diver by Mike Diver May 5th, 2005

It wasn't such a long time ago that almost any Seattle-based band could write their own cheques at the flick of an amplifier; that upstarts from the city's punk underbelly found fleeting fame in the wake of a breakthrough collective. True, said time is now buried under the sands of so many been-and-gone scenes, but the city remains a vibrant hotbed of talent - immediately recent years have given birth to fantastic records from Pretty Girls Make Graves, Cobra High, These Arms Are Snakes and many more, and now A Frames, six-legged and three-headed purveyors of the scuzziest slacker rock around, have graced the world with their Sub Pop debut, their third in all.

Black Forest is the sound of 1992 fast-forwarded to the present via an accidental diversion through the burnt-out landscapes of the ever encroaching future. Guitars fuzz and fizz whilst drumbeats come on in military fashion, regimented and rigid. Plaid shirts may have been thrown out with the teenage tantrums and rotting VHS copies of Singles, but grunge's ghost lingers provocatively over much of this 14-tracker. It's there, sighing heavily, sucking on fume-fogged air throughout the sludgy 'Eva Braun'; it wheezes and splurges phlegm in the direction of the wonderfully Jesus Lizard-meets-Kraftwerk (trust me) 'Quantum Mechanic'. But grunge cannot permeate every pore of this score to tearaway abandonment: 'Experiment' is a pulsing and screeching trash-rock rollercoaster ride, the deadpan vocals clashing violently with music that dares to deviate from the rails only to be whipped back into line time after time.

The rumbling bass of 'Death Train' will prove a point of access to newcomers, as will the comparatively calm 'Galena' and the almost Shellac in style 'Negative', but it's Black Forest's moments of utter unhinged-ness that keep the thirstiest of listeners coming back. A simple three-piece outfit has rarely crafted an album with such obvious longevity; indeed, one might make a comparison to the most initially inaccessible but ultimately most rewarding effort from the most famous crossover Seattle act of all time. But that'd be stupid and crass, right? Fuck it - let's flick those amps and see what wicked things come this way...

  • 8
    Mike Diver's Score
Log-in to rate this record out of 10
Share on
   
Love DiS? Become a Patron of the site here »


LATEST


  • Why Music Journalism Matters in 2024


  • Drowned in Sound is back!


  • Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Year: 2020


  • Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter


  • Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing


  • Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alternative must sees



Left-arrow

Liz Tormes

Limelight

Mobback
8290
8292

Weird War

Illuminated By The Light

Mobforward
Right-arrow


LATEST

    news


    Why Music Journalism Matters in 2024

  • 106145
  • news


    Drowned in Sound is back!

  • 106143

    news


    Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Y...

  • 106141
  • news


    Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter

  • 106139

    Playlist


    Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing

  • 106138
  • Festival Preview


    Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alterna...

  • 106137

    Interview


    A Different Kind Of Weird: dEUS on The Ideal Crash

  • 106136
  • Festival Review


    Way Out East: DiS Does Sharpe Festival 2019

  • 106135
MORE


    news


    The Neptune Music Prize 2016 - Vote Now

  • 103918
  • Takeover


    The Winner Takes It All

  • 50972

    Takeover


    10 Things To Not Expect Your Record Producer To...

  • 93724
  • review


    The Mars Volta - Deloused In The Comatorium

  • 4317

    review


    Sonic Youth - Nurse

  • 6044
  • feature


    New Emo Goth Danger? My Chemical Romance confro...

  • 89578

    feature


    DiS meets Justice

  • 27270
  • news


    Our Independent music filled alternative to New...

  • 104374
MORE

Drowned in Sound
  • DROWNED IN SOUND
  • HOME
  • SITE MAP
  • NEWS
  • IN DEPTH
  • IN PHOTOS
  • RECORDS
  • RECOMMENDED RECORDS
  • ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
  • FESTIVAL COVERAGE
  • COMMUNITY
  • MUSIC FORUM
  • SOCIAL BOARD
  • REPORT ERRORS
  • CONTACT US
  • JOIN OUR MAILING LIST
  • FOLLOW DiS
  • GOOGLE+
  • FACEBOOK
  • TWITTER
  • SHUFFLER
  • TUMBLR
  • YOUTUBE
  • RSS FEED
  • RSS EMAIL SUBSCRIBE
  • MISC
  • TERM OF USE
  • PRIVACY
  • ADVERTISING
  • OUR WIKIPEDIA
© 2000-2025 DROWNED IN SOUND