Review Summary: What is familiar? Am I familiar? I don't remember...
Lord Snow may be my favorite screamo act of all time and
SHADOWMARKS only reaffirms why I hold this scrappy, four-piece band from Michigan in such high regards. There’s much to be said about a group that can that can wield atmosphere, chaos, melody, and cathartic outbursts so handily, something that Lord Snow had already exhibited on their 2010 demo and has been delivering without fail on every release since.
SHADOWMARKS, feels like their most cohesive outing to date, and their most successful conglomeration of these raging disparities. It’s an EP that on first listen feels like it’s tearing you into one million directions at once; guitars oscillate between math-y and near black metal tremolo riffs, while front woman Steph Maldanado passionately caterwauls over the instrumental maelstrom. However, the dynamic drumming of Erik Anderson, a musician with seemingly a million arms wrangles the chaos, controlling it with his masterful array of percussive techniques. Overall,
SHADOWMARKS feels like the work of a unit- well-oiled, well-intentioned, and giving it everything they have.
