Pupil Slicer - Mirrors

Angry Metal Guy

Since I began listening to metal in the form of breakdowns, I’ve been besieged by the elites: “that’s not real metalcore!” Thus, I’ve always kept “real metalcore” bands like Botch, Converge, and The Dillinger Escape Plan, at arm’s length. However, this one is different. Since its first spin, Mirrors has haunted me. It’s strange to think that Pupil Slicer‘s name started as a joke, its vicious homage to Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali’s 1929 film Un Chien Andalou fitting the razor-sharp sound it displays. It’s easy to draw comparisons to genre classics like Calculating Infinity and Jane Doe, but there’s something deeper in Mirrors, something more disconcerting being stuck in the twisted vision of mastermind Katie Davies. Just like any good mathcore album, this London trio’s debut full-length is disjointed, dissonant, and above all, enveloping.

Pupil Slicer, although undeniably a trio, is vocalist/guitarist Davies’ brainchild through and through, seen in the guitar-and-vocals focus. Mirrors, following up an EP and a series of splits since their 2015 formation, combines its assets into a mathcore Frankenstein’s monster: twisted guitar work and frantic shrieks, Josh Andrews’ blasting drum tracks of an abandoned post-black project, and a healthy dose of Luke Fabian’s formidable bass and gutturals. Described as “all the sharp edges of angular mathcore with the bonecrushing intensity of grindcore,” the claustrophobic production and mixing and brief track-lengths has all the makings of mathy grind a la An Isle Ate Her or Me and Him Call It Us. Each of its twelve tracks taking on an identity of its own, Pupil Slicer is aimed at discomfort and jaggedness. Paired with eerie atmospherics, brutal severity, and a heart beating in the aftermath somewhere, Mirrors is a stunning meditation on chaos and clarity.

Mirrors by PUPIL SLICER

In spite of their two main detractors, production and disjointedness, Pupil Slicer feels remarkably deliberate, planned to the last detail. Each track features a distinct identity, relying foremost on the shifting angular riffs reminiscent of early The Dillinger Escape Plan with a healthy dose of groove. Tracks like “L’Appel Du Vide” and “Interlocutor” are relentless Car Bomb– or Frontierer-esque chunky blasters with scathing tech wankery, while “Martyrs” and “Wounds Upon My Skin” channel Knut or Mireplaner in chaotic post-metal influence, menace amplified by Davies’ unnerving Julie Christmas-esque cleans. Pupil Slicer‘s sense of groove recalls early Coalesce, but as Mirrors will always remind, sanity always teeters on the edge of madness: tracks like “Vilified or “Husk” feature straightforward structured riffs that disintegrate into arrhythmic and dissonant explosions. Even if it is a guitarist/vocalist show, the trio feels like a complete package. Davies’ axework is stunning, and she sports a deranged and manic shriek that translates well into desperation, her cleans adding a level of noise rock-ish eeriness. Andrews’ percussion is appropriately furious, seamlessly morphing from furious blastbeats to blistering double bass. Fabian’s bass provides a sturdy backbone and shines in noodling solos in “Worthless” and “Interlocutor.”

It’s perhaps unsurprising that Pupil Slicer‘s production is as claustrophobic as it is, as influences of crushing grind rear their appropriately ugly head. Tracks like “Stabbing Spiders,” “Panic Defence,” and “Vilified” express frenzy and brevity that recall the dark interpretations of Today is the Day and Gaza. Although it’s difficult to see the self-professed death metal influence, Fabian lends his furious roars in “Martyrs” and “Mirrors Are More Fun Than Television.” Amid the torrent of insanity, tracks “Husk” and “Collective Unconscious” are stunning marriages of Pupil Slicer‘s assets. The former features an unmatchable groove and an expertly crafted ebb-and-flow structure, while the latter offers an extremely emotional and downright melodic glitchy chord progression as Davies lays her heart at the mic.

Pupil Slicer‘s production is crowded, its death metal influence scarce, and its overall composition scattershot; “Mirrors Are More Fun Than Television” may have too many movements to justify its length, and “Save the Dream, Kill Your Friends” is perhaps too jagged. But there’s just something special about Mirrors: a certain je nais se quois. It blends its influences into something that pays homage to the likes of Converge, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and Coalesce, as well as Napalm Death and Today is the Day, but frightens with underlying darkness and beats arrhythmically with a bleeding heart. As such, I cannot help but pin Mirrors as one of the year’s biggest surprises – Pupil Slicer stabs and snaps and squeals and roars, but most of all, it haunts.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Prosthetic Records
Websites: facebook.com/pupilslicer | pupilslicer.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: March 12th, 2021

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