Attention! Former Tombs drummer Andrew Hernandez is in this band!
Ok now that I’ve given you a fickle reason to care, here’s a better one: Hernandez joined forces with bassist/vocalist (and voice actor) Dan Alex Rivera to form Twin Lords and unleash Devastating Planetary Shift: seven tracks of sludgy, insane progressive metal.
The duo obliterate genre boundaries, rapaciously circumventing any expectations one might have. One moment they’re laying down a monstrous groove, flattening with growling tone, the next going completely off-the-wall with progressive noodling shaded by the elasticity and violence of noise rock.
The chemistry between Rivera and Hernandez runs deep. They feed off of each other and even when they aren’t in complete lock step, seemingly moving tangentially, the link remains, bringing them back together in an explosion of creativity. This is most evident on the excellent “Stoned Cutter.” During some sections they’re like parallel tanks crushing everything at full speed and at others they’re as random relative to each other as flying shrapnel. And just as dangerous.
On that particular track Rivera isn’t barking (mad), or yelling, or hollering or any other descriptor of his raw, primal delivery. (Same for the “Anesthesia”-flavoured “Arithmaphobia.”) When he is though it takes the level of expressiveness to another level. The pain and frustration is thick enough to chew on, as displayed on closing track “Why Am I.” Rivera lets the bass resonate, the sound flowing through space as if slowly waking, or repressing intensity, then letting it slowly evolve into something more tangible and alive with catharsis, boiling over into bass madness and the call of “Tell me what to do!”
With all Rivera’s stop/start, turn on a dime movements between hammering sludge and rubbery (dazzling) progressiveness, Hernandez stays right with him. From blastbeats to fills, to nimble cymbal work, he’s just as technical and blitzing as his twin lord.
Devastating Planetary Shift is artful and ambitious. It feels raw and jammed out but also like the duo’s collective mind is working overtime. There’s something about a duo that lends the music a sense of purity and vision. But also a sense that despite being known artists, Twin Lords and DPS came out of nowhere. As if they played in a bar basement and the owner had to call in outside help to scrape everyone’s jaws off the floor. Then someone called up David Hall all Wayne’s World-style imploring him to have a listen.
Devastating Planetary Shift is a concise and crazy bit of artistry. It’s heavy as lead and light as air all at once. Beautifully bonkers and maddeningly melodic, Twin Lords land a killing blow that fans of sludge, doom and progression will enjoy. Sure it may not be for everyone, as one would expect from something this Bobby Leibling eyes/”O”-face but that’s no surprise, man. It’s on Handshake Inc.
Released September 20, 2105 on Handshake Inc.
Devastating Planetary Shift on Bandcamp
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