All eyes are on U.K. mathcore stalwarts Pupil Slicer, and for great reason. Their debut record, Mirrors, was focused on a simple direction: outwards. Now we have their magnum opus, Blossom, out now via Prosthetic Records, that sees Pupil Slicer motivated to move in every direction possible: up, down, inward, outward, sideways, and (most importantly) whatever the quickest avenue from your ears to your heart. Musically, that just makes for an incredibly dynamic and layered listen.
If the excellent debut was a ‘U.K.-ified’ version of the famous The Dillinger Escape Plan formula, Blossom pushes deeper into Pupil Slicer’s arsenal of influences and interests, resulting in a record that is gleefully difficult to categorize. Blossom’s story is inspired by Final Fantasy, sci-fi, and horror films, philosophy, Paradise Lost, and the result feels equally challenging and welcoming.
“One of the main reference points used was (NIN’s) The Downward Spiral,” explains bassist Luke Fabian. “In terms of the arrangements as well, each song is like, ‘Well, this one we want to be more industrial or post-rock or black metal.’ The influences were more about an entity forming, I think. Mirrors (sounds like it) pays service really to the bands that we like, like Converge, Dillinger, and Code Orange and stuff, which it still does in this one, obviously. But this one, it felt more like, well, the bits that were praised (and that we loved) the most on Mirrors were the bits that felt a bit more like us just playing. We really wanted this record to sound like that.”
Fabian notes that he credits the production for capitalizing on the sonic differences, “because the quality of the production was just so much higher in that we recorded Mirrors all separately. It was done in different time periods over about eight months to a year, and at a couple of different locations with different setups of us and stuff, and then all mixed together remotely. Whereas most of Blossom we were in one place tracking it, and it just happened in one time. Obviously, the man of the helm, Lewis Johns. He’s an excellent engineer and producer, and he murdered that record out, really. I think his input on that is huge.”
Everyone wants to give the drummer some, but sometimes you gotta give the other half of the rhythm section their due. Fabian’s portion of the record is such a backbone that allows the rest of Pupil Slicer to shine. From the pulsing, the pounding, and the hip-shaking, it’s a significant elevation up from their debut.
“On Blossom, some of the compositions and the arrangements and such allow it to pick through, and just generally, my philosophy is if you put time into picking where your bass actually is—I use a medium note or a high note or a low note and relative to what the guitar is doing most of the time— you can pop through a bit more. When we were putting Blossom together, and I had to write these clean guitars, I was like, ‘This is great. I can actually do something underneath this.’ The luxury of having clean guitars planned was really cool and allowed me to find ways to come through the mix better.”
Blossom is available now on Bandcamp. Follow Pupil Slicer on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for future updates.
Photo courtesy of Gobinder Jhitta.
