Wassa and Anna are Tvar’ and Tvar’ is a Moscow-based punk band that combines heavy fuzz rock with black metal and tropical themes.
It’s like if The Black Keys were bitten in an assault by a demonically possessed black metal band during a tour stop at a motel and the resulting paranormal infection caused them to recoil from sunlight, where after they moved to Havana to make a living playing hotels bars and night clubs while sleeping in a restaurant’s meat locker during the day and surviving off roaches and raw meat scraps. The infection also rendered Dan and Patrick, unable to communicate in anything other than Russian. And Dan’s now a woman.
This may sound outlandish but it pretty perfectly encapsulates the feeling of listening to Tvar”s debut Water. It’s pretty clear that after a couple of listen that Tvar’ means for you to smile while listening to their album, as much out of joy as discomfort over their gleeful violation of boundaries and conventions. But now that I think about it, I do think you’ll be able to wring some perverse joy out of the latter as well.
The album opens with the frenetic bassy pulse of “Poison” which see Wassa rapping as he hurdles incoming waves of guitar feedback and scraping black metal shrieks that come whirling from the depths of Anna’s vocal box.
“Tropical Spirit” begins with a raw black metal eruption before pivoting to a Death from Above style mutant, punk-disco beat, a battle eventually ensues between these modes, seeing them trading navigational duties in order to take the song on a sightseeing trip through groove hell.
“High Tide” sees Tvar’ downshifting into a steady Kyuss-styled, soul-fire stoker that compliments the lapping ambiance of a rolling tide as it creeps ever further into shore, the rolling and receding waves slowly revealing a corpse, shallowly and hastily buried on the beach. “
World River” is a foot-loose, post-punk graveyard pageant where the band chants its way through a pounding, blasphemous chorus of invocations with the help of their friend Lucidvox. “No Idea” see the band lighting the walls, furniture, and knick·knack of a family home on fire to backlight a churning and hypnotically devious garage rock grind.
“Smoke Through the Palms” is dangerously hazy, with Wassa’s vocals emerging from just beyond your sightline through the swirling plums of smoke to deliver a toothy death rock performance over a downer rock dirge. “Alcest” and “Storm” are two more welcome blasts of dark, frost-bitten furry to freeze the sweat on your brow into bejeweled beads of ice, and set you up for a slow drift into an ocean of merciless black waters and towards an uncertain horizon that is the outro “Low Tide.”
When you are ready for a burial at sea, Tvar’ are ready to play you out.
Buy and stream Tvar”s Water below via Bandcamp:
Follow Tvar’ via Facebook here.
