The Twilight Sad: Forget The Night Ahead

When The Twilight Sad first emerged (their début E.P was released around 2006) we were treated to one of the freshest and most unique new UK bands out there.

Their sound was vastly experimental and just little bit noisy (an understatement to say the very least) and it seems that now, after three years hard work, a début L.P and a whole heap of tour dates with some gigantic names, the band are finally ready to bring their sound onto a new level of song-writing: a level we're more than pleased to witness.

And to think, this is only album number two.

Vocalist James Grahams' heavily accented vocals are spat fiercely, earnestly and yet timidly all at once, coming across like a shy, cute puppy that will tear your hand off the second it feels threatened. It's breathless to follow his words set against the thick, sludgy cacophony behind; reverberated shouts and desperate vocal-pacing fling the other musicians of the piece to-and-fro like a helpless vessel stuck out at sea in the midst of a violent storm. Every element of the instrumentation follows his words, his rhythm and change of speed, refusing to dominate or smother but instead building a giant, wailing wall of sound for the lyrics to be painted upon. It's almost always tense, often breathless, consistently loud and, more to the point, poignantly chaotic.

They've already proven themselves to be one of Scotland's most promising bands but we had no idea they were going to go on to craft something like this. There's just nothing else out there like it, not a single CD we can think of that carries the same strange thick, murky viscosity that The Twilight Sad are able to muster from their instruments and various other musical tools (we're sure a toy train-track was used in one of their songs...). Even when they decide to quieten down it ends up becoming something of an extraordinary affair; enforced none more so than with track six, "That Room". You may have heard it before on their stop-gap compilation record Killed My Parents And Hit The The Road when it was then titled Untitled #27. 

Where that demo of the track was a strictly acoustic, overly tinny but promising slice of melancholy, the new version is a sparse, stomping venture into one of the bands most uplifting songs yet . Repeated keys and a building beat and rhythm grow over the four-and-a-half minute duration, eventually ending in a giant, fuzz-filled bubble of noise, crashing around your very ears and removing any oxygen you previously held inside your lungs. "And her blood is never spilled after dinner, and there's wine on her breathe, we'll hide her, and don't wake her, and we'll hide her, and we'll leave." Atmospheric doesn't even being to describe the kind of mood these guys can build once they've settled.

It's quite clear to see from the off that the band have truly come into their own in terms of where and what they want their sound to be. Each member integrates perfectly with the other and though everything seems even darker than their first depressive delve into alternative musicality, it's also more melodic, forming a clearer path than their début Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters but still remaining just as experimental. There's admittedly a fair few minor blips along the way (Seven Years Of Letters is fine but wears thin way too quickly) but there is no denying it's strength and intensity as a full-length.

Made To Disappear drips with emotional depth, propelling cathartic, distorted guitar-shredding against Grahams' impassioned hollering. His accent is so thick that it's hard to actually catch what the man is saying some of the time but it never truly gets in the way if you're concentrating hard enough. Even when the lyrics do seem inaudible, his heavy enunciation and inflections actually work well as another instrument-like layer slotted in-between all of the pandemonium behind.

Like many great artists this year, The Twilight Sad have stuck to their guns with their second record, ignoring any pressure and hype that surrounded them and just done what they do best; creating some of the best noise out there. Forget The Night Ahead is an absolutely fantastic progression into the bands already distinct muddy, heavy, droning, experimental rock and usurps anything they've made previous to it. It's one hell of an emotional ride but it's also one you must absolutely experience for yourselves.