Snake Wine

Albenrezension

Light Pupil Dilate's semi-abstract moniker (well, cause and effect, anyway) is a good indication of the Dada-esque songwriting lawlessness pervading their second album, Snake Wine, and its eyebrow-raising collection of ditties, often bearing similarly obscure titles like "Prana" and "Twinkly" — what the...? Along with somewhat more decipherable standout tracks such as "Big Open," "Selfless," and "Boundary Dissolution," these offer a hard to define but generally engaging convergence of musical styles, including but in no way limited to hardcore, metal, noise rock, alternative rock, and prog rock, to name the most prevalent. Indeed, of the band's self-proclaimed touchstones, the Jesus Lizard, Converge, and Fugazi are definitely identifiable throughout — Slayer, Sepultura, and King Crimson not so much — and as with most genre-bending music, the line between sheer freak appeal and outright compositional quality is especially fine and subjective. Nevertheless, Light Pupil Dilate's experimental aesthetic never reaches the Mr. Bungle or Sleepytime Gorilla Museum plateau of wack-job eclecticism, so as long as bass-heavy post-hardcore with counterpoint melodies, ample dissonance, and enraged vocals sounds like a good musical recipe to you, Snake Wine will not disappoint.