STRVWMVN EP REVIEW

STRVWMVN (Whose band name I'm reasonably sure is pronounced like 'strawman') are a self-described "post-hardcore" outfit from Wilmington, Delaware. A friend sent me this untitled EP and asked if I'd give it a listen. What I heard has a lot to say, and it's been heinously under-lauded since its release on November 25th, so here we are. 

Listen or Buy the EP on Bandcamp

Given my lack of certainty on the band's name, you may have guessed STRVWMVN moves pretty quietly. They've played some shows and recorded this EP, doing the essentials to be a band without generating directionless hype online - and they've been doing it since two-thousand freaking twelve. That's well over ten years. STRVWMVN checked all the boxes quietly, all while several of the members were in and out of countless other projects. My point here is that this band is a bit of a cryptid and their record is a sleeper - a big, pointy hibernator, like a 2-ton porcupine.

After a minute or two of slow buildup, "Take a Knee" opens the EP on a rug pull and a twisted, strange post-punk groove powered by clanging overdriven guitar. The big post-hardcore element here is the shouted vocals chanting echoes of coherence, doing broad, aesthetic lyrical strokes instead of simply telling stories. The sound out of the gate is reminiscent of a few of Delaware's other crews of Fugzi disciples and metalcore washouts - our oldest, wisest, best and brightest. Whatever this genre that I'd call art rock really is, STRVWMVN play it with unmatched precision. Plus, the band is in great company, with a sound that belongs on the shelf with fellow Delaware locals like Von Holden, Grandeur, or Kindred. The rhythm section across the whole record is like a tailored runway for the guitars and vocals to bolt up at full speed, and it's most clear on the opener, where everything aligns momentarily underneath the vocal hook to great effect. The drums are neither solely song-serving nor never needlessly flashy, just complex enough to contribute to the wash of instrumentation and the off-kilter feel of the whole EP. It's like the grooves being laid down have just the right balance of play between voices and combat between instruments - a heaping helping of dissonance that's at no point unlistenable.

"Housefly" carries a gloomy slowdown at its midpoint before the band kicks back into gear and a pair of samples stretch the listener's attention into the left and right channels. The guitar solos on "Take a Knee" and "The Cold" are by no means ye olde minor pentatonic shreds, but face-melters of a different brand, eerie and full of rough edges. The grumble of bass on the intro to "Sicko" paired with the title had me sure it was a real fist-pumper, but I was dead wrong on that. This EP is very difficult to read or predict until you've nearly finished it - but then it runs away with itself again. Best of all, it makes these big twists and turns all while remaining cohesive. Then again, over a decade in, of course, STRVWMVN has their sound dialed in right up to the cusp of absurdity.

The second-to-last track "Nosedive" starts on an almost Godspeed You! Black Emperor or Have A Nice Life influenced note, building a soundscape of clouds before ripping through them as the title suggests with another mighty guitar solo full of wobbled, bending notes and odd phrasing. The closer "Glitch" goes all-in on this ambient leaning, taking the echoing guitars and meandering passages of the rest of the EP and pushing them into sound collage territory before breaking apart to close the whole affair out. It's not exactly a narrative listen, but it lacks an entry point other than its first track. It's an experience sort of like leaning your head between the boards of an old row house and seeing what's left and who's haunting the inside. Sure, you can call that post-hardcore, but I wouldn't put this noisy, psychedelic EP in a box so quickly. You know just what to do with the Bandcamp link attached to the album art.