We featured, at the start of 2018, “The Land“, the debut single by Montreal, Quebec‘s darkwave/post-punk collective TALLEEN, dubbed by Mike ‘a sleazy and angular modern rock first single, which is an anthemic tune to stick to’, followed later in the year by the band’s first full-length album “The Black Sea”.
And it’s from the video clip for the album’s song “Knives”, WL//WH is pleased to premiere, that TALLEEN are back, bringing forth a distinctive anthemic and gripping neo-post-punk sound, adding elements of Krautrock, Garage and Darkwave, unleashing stand out vocals and lyrics combined with relentless piercing guitar riffage and pounding rhythms to express relevant and unusual social issues, through an impassioned, whimsically brutal, in your face, rant “Let the blades sink in…..This is knives.”
Charging repetitive abrasive guitar chords rev menacing melodies into low rumbling basslines slow heavy seep as harsh throat scraping screams ramble discursive underground chatter channeling John Lydon-esque wicked vocal sneer, before culminating in an instantaneous purge of repugnant inequities riddled in urgently steady drumbeats and subtle depth expanding synth swathes.
Poetic lyrics draw from history, geography, and the nature of man to build rich textures of color, mood, and emotion sewn painfully against the grain of time to illustrate, “what it means to suffer in such mendacious times.”
“Set against the backdrop of a hollowed out factory building, “Knives” explores a self-mutilatory state of mind brought on by an overt sense of helplessness at the hands of societal oppression, whereinlies a harmless itch festering into a deadly hostage situation.”
Jittering, haunting video footage doused in a militant vibe rolls behind the band as red and green strobe lights pulse and flicker in the fore-front conjuring faceless, disfigured shadow reflections into the cracked, broken, sediment encrusted wall. Darkened by the nightfall, a spotlight follows cameras through empty rooms of a decaying urban structure, before zooming in on a bound figure whose identity is quite unexpected!
Keep up with TALLEEN: