BEASTMILK - Climax

The first thing that struck me about Beastmilk was their name. I honestly thought it was Breastmilk the first time I read it. I'm glad I was wrong, but this post-punk band's music is enough to help me look past any dumb band name. Having said that, Beastmilk is a badass name, and brings to mind things both nurturing and horrific, which suits their music perfectly.

Musically, Climax is all over the place while still sticking to a sound that is distinctly their own. The album draws from best of classic goth and post punk, but adds other influences that make it so much more than the sum of the many parts that comprise it. On the first few tracks I heard parts that reminded me of the best of TSOL, The Damned, The Cure, Christian Death, The Misfits, and Katatonia, with a grim atmosphere that a lot of black metal bands could learn a thing or two from. They also never rely on one tempo, making the songs much more varied and interesting than those of their peers, which definitely puts them ahead of a pack of disinterested hipster turds trying to capitalize on this style of music being somewhat in vogue at the moment.

The vocals are a highlight for me. For a guy whose vocals have primarily been for black metal bands such as Dodheimsgard and Hexvessel, Kvohst really brings it, sounding like the bastard love child of Rozz Williams' dramatic vocals and Glenn Danzig's Evil Elvis style. Combined with the music and the apocalyptic lyrics, the sound is nothing new, but together all of this just works so fucking well it's chilling at times. Combine all that with the perfect as usual results bands get from recording an album with Kurt Ballou, and goddamn.
15 year old me would have been so stoked to find out that there was a band this good out there making this kind of music, and 27 year old me is just as stoked... probably more stoked knowing that if they ever play Portland I can actually get into the dive bar they'll be playing at one some rainy night hopefully in the near future.

Climax is definitely in my top 10 releases of 2013, as it should be on every fan of dark and creative music's year end list. And as far as black metal dudes doing goth/post punk stuff, this blows the Von side project Sixx out of the water... and Sixx was pretty damn good. If you at all enjoy any of the bands I mentioned before, do yourself a favor and check out Beastmilk. [Svart]
- Tony Howard

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