LOVE SEX MACHINE // TRVE - LTD EDITION CARBONIC BEAST EDITION VINYL (LP)

and gasping for air as subsequent track ‘TEST26’ explodes in a hail of post-metal polyrhythm and ra- zor sharp synthesizers...

If ‘Asexual Anger’ was an ordeal, ‘Trve’ is a new kind of nightmare. The intervening years have seen the French four-piece trim the fat from their bones to leave only a beating heart of menacing, hypnotic rifs that steadily tunnel their way into your brain. Whilst Love Sex Machine have never been more ab- rasive, there is a refned, undeniably pop edge to ‘Trve’ that adds a new element to the musical con- frontation in which the band thrive. Atmospheric intros, extraneous refrains and eerie, instrumental ou- tros might all be classic hallmarks of heavy music but you’ll fnd none of that here. Most tracks on ‘Trve’ clock in at around three minutes, with songs such as ‘Canopy’ fueled by high-octane black me- tal rifs played in an unsettlingly optimistic major key, augmented by synth motifs that verge on trium- phant and, a frst for Love Sex Machine, penultimate track ‘Hollywood Story’ even featuring vocal harmonies that lift the listener for a brief, beautiful moment before the next towering wave of nihilistic sludge forces you right back down to your knees.

Collaboratively recorded by the band themselves and beloved producerSanford Parker(Eyehategod, Yob, Harm’s Way) ‘Trve’ is a record defned by fatherhood as the world teeters on the brink of collap- se, an unashamedly monstrous ofering. Whilst the rifs and refrains are steadfast, resolute and relent- less, the lyrics for the album were written collectively by the band; constantly tweaked, amended and reinterpreted in order to capture the cumulative chaos of the intervening years.

‘Trve’ is Love Sex Machine springing a trap eight years in the making, one that’ll keep us strung up between a rock and a hard place so we can at least appreciate the view of the oncoming apocalypse.

FOR FANS OF

Meshuggah, Intronaut, Amenra, LLNN, Sumac, Herod, Eyehategod, Crowbar, The Jesus Lizard