December 11th, 2008
Black Ships - Omens
(New Romance For Kids Records)
Dave Jaffer
Live and on recordings, Black Ships songs feel like prospective physical assaults in dark places, with buried vocals that play like words of foreboding and a layered guitar wall that's claustrophobia-inducing and doom-inspiring. However, despite appearances, there's a lot of creativity afoot here. Hard music rarely boasts capital-S style, but Omens is quite stylish. Tempo shifts, like the one transitioning No Eulogy into The Flaws in Self Help, jostle and resituate the listener. Other stylistic aspects of this debut LP set Black Ships apart, but I'll let you find 'em. For now, I'll salute "Montreal's loudest band" with a bra-fucking-vo.
