What were you doing eight years ago? Are you also depressed by the relentless march of time? Brummie noiseniks To The Wall could easily have fallen into that mental trap, but thankfully they have sidestepped it and created a banger of an EP – their first since their self-titled debut in 2018.
To The Wall are a super group who are also a supergroup, as they are formed from ex-members of math rock and post-hardcore bands Blakfish, Shapes and &U&I. Three bands equal one. We do maths differently in the Midlands. We make our own rules. Anyway, what about the music? ‘900 Seconds’ begins with skeletal, sinister chords, and the instruction “Come in, number 7!” is howled with the anger of a bingo caller compelled to repeat himself more than three times. If Zack de la Rocha joined forces with Gang of Four, the end result might sound one quarter as peeved as ‘900 Seconds’. The track inexplicably ends with distantly heard sax because why not?
‘Cold Souls’ continues the withering, wild tone of Pariah’s opener, though it leans in more towards the emo sound of the early 2000s, when everyone was wearing eyeliner like Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange. It was a truly anarchic yet simultaneously conformist time. On ‘Cold Souls’, To The Wall batter their undoubtedly expensive kit with the urgency of Farage filling in an expenses claim. By title alone, ‘A Ladder Made of Numbers’ is more math rock. “A million followers ought to do just nice” – the last word ought to be an adverb, but we do grammar differently in the Midlands or not at all. The vocal delivery makes Jello Biafra seem as earnest as a head prefect, and the guitars yowl like a sack of neutered cats. The track inexplicably ends with piano-in-an-abandoned-cathedral and snipped drum fills because why not?
‘Holy Bones’ begins in the vein of mid-2000s indie, which may conjure images of Jamie Oliver being well pukka (you have been warned), but it soon lurches into heavier territory. It seems likely that To The Wall are the only band on the planet who can segue from The Ordinary Boys into Satan’s Bloody Mother without sounding at all contrived. ‘Holy Bones’ also features an unexpectedly jazzy Cold War Kids-like intermezzo – “nice done” as they say in Brum. Or, as a young man from West Heath once said: ‘Original Pariah Material / You’re listening to To The Wall.”
Pariah will be released on all major streaming platforms on 17th April.
‘900 seconds’ and ‘Cold Souls’ are out now via Bandcamp
By: Neil Laurenson
