Chasing Fridays: Belong, Trauma Ray, Holy Blade, and more

Hello Chasing Sundays nation. It's been two weeks since I published an edition of Chasing Fridays — my weekly roundup of music criticism and (sometimes) gig reviews. Without getting into it, I was going through some personal shit last week and simply didn't have the bandwidth to blog. I hope this column makes up for my brief absence.

This week, I wrote about the surprisingly divisive new album by shoegaze stalwarts Belong, as well as a new single from shoegaze up-and-comers trauma ray. I also went in on some hardcore of the heavy and not heavy varieties, and dished a few thoughts on a recent Pitchfork "Best New Music" honoree.

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Belong - Realistic IX

They did it. They really fuckin' did it. Earlier this year, I geeked out wildly about the Belong single, "Souvenir," that the long-dormant shoegaze duo dropped to announce their first new album in 13 years, Realistic IX. Now that the whole record is out (via Kranky), I'm happy to write that the entire thing is as much of a masterwork as "Souvenir" is. Prior to this set of songs, Belong built their name on droney shoegaze (2006's essential October Language) and ambient shoegaze (2011's also great Common Era); music that was densely textured but only lightly rhythmic. You weren't reaching for Belong to hear pop melodies and neck-bobbing grooves. It was zone-out fare of the highest order.

Realistic IX is different. The band are unabashedly in their My Bloody Valentine bag on here, and unlike 90% of shoegaze bands who attempt to capture MBV's oblique essence, Belong can actually do it. On songs like "Jealousy" and "Difficult Boy," the wordless vocal coos fade in and out with the fickle predictability of a wind vane swiveling in the breeze. "Souvenir" and "Realistic (I'm Still Waiting)" boast throbbing glide-guitar strokes that are upholstered with the exact type of crinkling candy wrapper distortion that Kevin Shields used on landmarks like "Soon" and "Off Your Face." Unlike inferior MBV devotees who get carried away with piling on layers of guitar that end up smothering, not enhancing, the flickering tension that's core to this sound, Belong know that a little bleating glide-guitar goes a long way.

Superb MBV recitation is a sound I'll never grow weary of hearing because it's rarely ever done this well, but Realistic IX has more to offer than just that. Rhythmically, the album is focused on channeling the dubby post-rock that took over the U.K. underground in the wake of first-wave shoegaze. "Image of Love" is undergirded by a looping break that almost sounds like jungle played at half-speed, evoking a slurry time-warp feeling that's bolstered by drunken guitar that staggers in and out of step with the beat. Basically: what if Seefeel made "I Only Said"? The muggier, foggier "Crucial Years" is moreso grounded in Bowery Electric's elliptic minimalism, whereas the hypnic closer, "AM/PM," reminds me of E.A.R. in how a light four-on-the-floor beat pulses beneath the purring cloud of shapeless distortion.

Overall, Realistic IX sounds completely out of step with what's been happening in shoegaze over the last decade. I can't speak to the exact equipment that Belong used to record these songs, but it sounds like they explicitly tried to make the album sound like it was released in 1996. The low-end is pleasantly quaint compared to the Adderall-binge breakbeats of They Are Gutting a Body of Water or the 808 thwacks of Novulent, and sonically, it neither adheres to the lo-fi lineage of post-Blue Smiley weirdos or the chunky gloss that all the grunge-gazers use. It sounds both pleasantly dated and also like a vital breath of fresh air. It might be the best shoegaze full-length I've heard all year.

trauma ray - "Bishop"

I've written extensively about the heavy/nu-gaze/grunge-gaze cadre of the ongoing shoegaze revival, so in lieu of regurgitating another mini-primer on that stuff, I'll just underscore that trauma ray are a big part of that wave. If you care about bands like Narrow Head, Cold Gawd, and Glare, then you mostly likely already know of this group. If not, then you're behind the times. The Texas band have been around since the late 2010s yet are just gearing up to release their first full-length (out this fall via Dais Records). The music from their first few EP's is pretty damn popular on streaming services, and I've heard the band are quite a force live, although I've never seen them. I think most of their output thus far is just OK, with the exception being their 2023 split with Downward and this new track "Bishop."

As I've said many times before, a band making shoegaze in this vein have to be really good at what they do for it to leave a positive impression on me. Enjoying shoegaze in 2024 means wading through an overflowing river of bullshit that sounds like someone heard Hum twice, dropped $700 on pedals, and then spent more time choosing the right gold chain necklace to rock onstage than they did writing songs. Fortunately, trauma ray aren't wasting our time with another vapidly derivative outpouring of predictably loud/soft gobbledygook. Sure, "Bishop" is predictable in the sense that you know a huge-ass wave of distorted guitar noise is going to splash over your ears before the song's over. But at least both the journey and the destination make the trip worthwhile.

There're three elements of "Bishop" that elevate this song from "instantly forgettable" to "actually pretty good." 1) The angular, bass-driven groove of its verse rhythm is a refreshing break from the listless ring-out notes most grunge-gazers drop into their lazily constructed clean verses (because all their effort goes into the Heavy Main Riff — amateur move). 2) The way the guitar sounds like it's being tracked from two rooms over during that verse sounds cool. It gives the section another interesting dimension, and plays well with the vocalist's papery timbre. 3) The heavy section is actually fucking heavy and pretty. It's more post-metal than grunge, which makes the song on a whole feel like a cross between Deafheaven and Narrow Head rather than a bland simulacrum of one or the other.

I'm still going to need more variety from trauma ray— and any band of this ilk — to hold my interest for an entire album's worth of music that sounds like "Bishop." As well-executed as it is, there's nothing particularly radical or unexpected going on here. And again, any band making music like this are unfortunately kneecapped by the fact that hundreds of other contemporary bands are making music exactly like this. There's more competition than ever for which crashing heavy-gaze climax is going to please my ears next. However, based on the quality of "Bishop" and trauma ray's other recent material, I have reason to believe they'll be able to win my attention once again. This band are pros in a league of dilettantes.

Holy Blade - Holy Blade

On my hardcore podcast Violent Treatment, I've been very open about my respectful disinterest to the ongoing strain of pop-punk-via-hardcore bands like Koyo, No Pressure, One Step Closer, and Anxious. I got my fill of that type of music before I entered my twenties, and while I'm happy to see younger folks going off to those bands at fests, that lane of melodic, hardcore-adjacent music — most of which sounds like Taking Back Sunday and/or Shed-era Title Fight — just isn't my bag. Regardless, that stuff is incredibly popular right now, and I'm really curious to see if the entrance of Holy Blade has any marked impact on the sound/vibe of hardcore's most melodic region.

Holy Blade are the latest project to feature Colin Young, currently the singer of Twitching Tongues, drummer of God's Hate, bassist of Deadbody, and co-host of the influential HardLore hardcore podcast. His older brother, Taylor Young, is one of the most prolific and popular hardcore producers of the last decade, and a member of many of the same California bands (Twitching Tongues. God's Hate, Deadbody, etc.). Anything the Young brothers touch is basically guaranteed to pop within the scene, even a band like Holy Blade, whose debut EP sounds like a cross between AFI and the Wipers. This is distinctly un-heavy gothic punk that's only a stone's throw from early Thursday/My Chemical Romance, yet California-fied, hence the explicit AFI worship and the classic L.A. punk strut of its more vintage passages.

It's a micro-strain of punk that hasn't had a place in hardcore (at least the tier of hardcore Young's bands occupy) at any point during my decade-plus involvement with the genre. However, Holy Blade are signed to the hardcore-focused Closed Casket Activities and are already scheduled to play the annual FYA hardcore fest early next year, so they're clearly planning to operate within this scene, not break out and join another. I'm already wagering that their mere existence will inspire other hardcore musicians to start pulling from AFI, and within a year or two, I wouldn't be surprised if Holy Blade are spearheading their own little battalion of gothic pop-punk bands who, prior to this band breaking the seal, wouldn't have been accepted under the increasingly malleable yet still quite fickle hardcore banner.

I'm not going to pretend like Holy Blade are catering to my personal sonic preferences right now, but I at least find this EP to be a relieving departure from the aforementioned breed of pop-punk-core that's already surpassed its saturation point. There's already too much "hardcore" that sounds like The Movielife. A "hardcore" band that sounds like The Art of Drowning is at least an interesting change of pace. Will the kids try to find a way to spin-kick to this? Remains to be seen, but I'll be at FYA with the intention of finding out.

Fatal Realm - Demo

I listened to this demo a few times over the weekend while vacuuming my car, and the whole time I was headbanging and stink-facing and muttering things to myself like, "je-sus this is hard." Then I learned who plays in Fatal Realm and the superbly high quality made a lot of sense. This Hudson Valley supergroup boasts Mike Shaw (guitarist of Mindforce, Sentinel, New World Man, and many others), Jack Xiques (Age of Apocalypse, Pillars of Ivory, Sentinel), and Will Kamerman (also of Age of Apocalypse) playing death metal-influenced hardcore that's heavier than all of these guys' other bands. This is no-nonsense dancing music. The mosh parts in "The Gift" and "Descent to Suffer" give me phantom pains in my legs from the spinkicks I hope to one day take during this band's set. The production is just lo-fi enough so that it sounds ugly but not cruddy. There's a ferocious Cross of Disbelief feature in "Hammer of Heresy." Put this on and let your most violent impulses take over. Let it out. That's what good hardcore is for.

Doris - Ultimate Love Songs Collection

When this album received the Pitchfork "Best New Music" honor last week, one of my group chats was immediately lit up with skepticism. A 50-song hodge-podge of drumless art-rap demos that sound like they were recorded by placing an iPhone mic in front of another person's phone speaker? Well, I was intrigued, and now I'm addicted to this record. The Pitchfork review already names all of the right reference points for rap heads, so my pitch is: the Cindy Lee record for people who have an opinion on Nettspend*. Likewise: Guided By Voices for people who'll have the new skaiwater record in their notes app AOTY list**. Whether you know what I'm talking about or not, just put this on and keep an open mind. If you truly love music, you should be able to find something to like about it.

*Pretty good
**Me, prolly