Scars For You To Remember (Fearless Records) is the third full-length album from a Philadelphia-based five-piece that has created an engaging slice of industrialized post-hardcore, that will find a willing audience from fans of Code Orange and the like. Varials spent six weeks together holed up in a remote mountain house writing, before locking down in the studio and recording with producer Jeff McKinnon (Broken Youth / Lasciate).

And the sound on the record is beautifully crisp and concise, perfectly executed on the opener ‘A Body Wrapped In Plastic : Prologue’ where juddering robotic guitar tones blend with clanking percussion, while vocalist Mitchell Rogers screams with rasping intensity. From here the record does not let up, flowing from short interludes with heavy use of industrial electronica, into a furious and abrasive concoction of complex riffing and stuttering percussive rhythms.

 

There is a complexity to be found in ‘Ritual Division (Haus)’ with an intro of pulsating electro and sampling, before the band unleash a heavy nineties nu-metal style riff, while there are moments of pure abrasive heaviness, such as on the title track where Rogers screams, “There’s no escape!”. The electronic influence is prominent throughout the tone of the album, with an especially deep dub-step vibe on ‘Phantom Power’, and there are also subtle moments of atmospherics and clean singing, most notably on ‘Circles’, which is pure metalcore in an almost modern Architects vein.

The record closes out with one final rager on the dark sludgy groove of ‘Halo Of The Sun’, which rounds off a uniquely diverse listening experience. Varials are a band that have certainly found their own distinctively niche sound on Scars For You To Remember, which is an album well worth your attention.

 

Buy the album here: https://found.ee/v_sfytr

 

7 / 10

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