Pupil Slicer – Blossom (Review)

This is the second album from UK mathcore band Pupil Slicer.

With a sci-fi theme and a range of different influences, Blossom is a 46-minute journey into Pupil Slicer’s absorbingly intense world. The promo blurb states bands such as Nine Inch Nails, Deafheaven, Radiohead, and Botch as prime influences, and this should set the scene for what is a broad and compelling work.

So, mathcore with a side order of blackgaze and electronica? It’s as good a description as any really. The mathcore is the main meal here, and the other elements mentioned so far add taste and texture along the way.

The music is precise and professional, while still exhibiting passion and fervour. There’s a chaotic hardcore/mathcore side that blends technicality with a raw edge. There’s a blackened streak that helps provide a side of feeling and depth. There’s a gleaming contemporary aspect that sees electronic parts and delicate clean singing provide further layers of sound. The mix of harsh aggression, melodic presence, engaging atmosphere, atypical structuring, and emotive hooks is flawlessly rendered into three-dimensional shape. Pupil Slicer clearly know what they’re doing with their multifaceted hybrid style, and they craft their angular art with the skill of specialists.

The songs are infectious and enticing, despite how abrasive they can occasionally be. Pupil Slicer are a band that are heavy and hostile, yet they have moments of accessibility within the carnage that can sometimes be downright beautiful. The Dillinger Escape Plan are a relevant reference point in this regard, in the way that they can swing from one extreme to the next swiftly, yet skilfully. It’s that sort of merging of extremity and accessibility that’s so damn good when done well, as it very much is on Blossom.

If you fancy a combination of MØL, Converge, Ithaca, and the rest of the bands mentioned above, then Blossom is for you. Pupil Slicer have impressed, and this is an album that’s hugely enjoyable.

Very highly recommended.