Album Review: Pariso/Kerouac - Split EP

Despite the intricate packaging of this split record, the sound you are immediately throttled, stabbed and torn asunder by is surprisingly raw, both incredibly heavy and fast, the punk and heavy metal influences of these two bands meet in a melting pot of interesting Cancer Bats like barrages of musical juggernauts powered by the most inconceivably conceived perpetual motion machine.

Not thinking to check the length of the tracks before playing them I was impressed with the intricacy of such brief songs, each with their own unique punch, not to mention kick to the balls, which is inevitably the after effect of this on someone who likes to listen to Justin Bieber or, God forbid, Rebecca Black.

On the Pariso side, ‘Brutacus’ is a fun 21 seconds of screaming along to a single riff, something that sounds so simple, yet only a few would be able to pull off without sounding messy, this split if nothing else, is far from messy. Whereas ‘The Recluse’ is probably the most impressive of their contribution to this offering, laced with brevity, as it the entire record, it incredibly manages to get its point across.

Kerouac are similar, yet their instrumentation is a little more interesting, managing to pull a sense of melody out of this hardcore wall of sound. Much more punk orientated, and for that reason if for no other, I am very impressed by this band’s side of the split. The riffs are impressive as well as succinct, and by some form of miracle they manage to get through to me with the briefest songs I have probably ever taken some serious thought to.

Their fiends series of stunted songs are their half of this split and it works surprisingly well, especially alongside Pariso’s more brutal stylings (despite their similarities).

Overall this is an incredibly fun few minutes and the closer ‘Fiends’, funnily enough, wraps up the whole split very nicely, putting all the separate pieces of Kerouac’s puzzle together to form an epic and impressive effort. I was left with a feeling of wanting more, and I suppose that was the idea.

3/5

'Split EP' Pariso/Kerouac is available now on Tangled Talk Records/Holy Roar.

Kerouac on Facebook, Bandcamp, Twitter, and Tumblr.

Official Pariso website
Pariso on Facebook, Bandcamp, and Twitter.

Edward Strickson