Review Summary: Antigone manages to avoid the infamous sophomore slump with their release of "Jouissance", which proves itself to be a beautiful yet heavy album with only a couple of minor issues to be found within it.
Jouissance is the second LP released by Antigone. The album features Jacob Zarate on vocals and Adam Armstrong on drums. Mike Longoria is a newcomer to the band on bass for the album and is the third bassist in the band’s history. There is always a worry that a band will suffer a sophomore slump, that their creative juices have been spent on their first album only to put out a lacking second album. This is especially true when a band’s first attempt is as good as
Crise Blanche was. Antigone manages to avoid this by creating an album that not only lives up to their first LP, but manages to exceed it.
Jouissance seems to follow a character who is a serial killer, and their excitement and subsequent regret from their actions. Overall the album seems to be an improvement over their first LP
Crise Blanche. The most noticeable improvement is the wider range of vocals provided by Zarate. There are a few moments on
Jouissance were Zarate gives some great curdling screams which are tastefully used to add to the songs and fit perfectly where inserted. This adds another dimension to the album and makes the vocals much more memorable than their previous effort. This album is also a bit heavier than their last work. Zarate’s guitar work and Longoria’s bass are wonderfully done. The beautiful strings are still there, but there are more moments where harsher riffing is present, sometimes with the before mentioned screaming vocals with it. The excellent drumming provided by Armstrong provides plenty to the album as well with his familiar entrancing beats, now with a few more crushing sections to match the heavier tone.
The production quality is adequate, though not stellar. Every instrument can be heard during the quieter moments, but they seem to become more muffled during louder sections. Whether intentional or not this creates a bit of a sludgy feel at times that just doesn’t quite fit the album. Sometimes the listener can lose track of the instruments in the wall of sound and that is a bit disappointing, especially when the instrumentation is as interesting as it is on this album. The sometimes muffled quality of the instruments does not detract from the overall quality of the album greatly, but it does hurt it just a bit. The album also feels a bit short. While filler is not a good thing just for filler’s sake, another song or two would have helped the album had they been as good as the rest of the tracks on here.
Overall
Jouissance is a step forward for Antigone. This album retains the same beautiful cerebral soundscapes provided by
Crise Blanche while introducing heavier sections to further diversify the sound. The balance between the cerebral and heavy is well done. Combine that with an interesting premise and Antigone has managed to build upon an excellent release to further improve themselves in their sophomore effort. In the end the only thing this album left me wanting was clearer production and some more content. It will be interesting to see if Antigone can further refine and improve their sound to become something even more. They seem to have the talent to do so.
