Weston Super Maim - See You Tomorrow Baby

Angry Metal Guy

What’s so wonderful about Weston Super Maim is that the duo doesn’t take itself too seriously. With the style of music they profess, you’d be tempted to expect a Blindfolded and Led to the Woods or Ion Dissonance, maybe leaning a bit towards Aseitas or Dysphoria. You’d probably be right – technically – but these guys describe their sound as “imagine if Meshuggah couldn’t count,” describing a blend of the mathy pioneers’ wonky rhythms, Will Haven’s dissonance, Crowbar’s riffs, Car Bomb and Humanity’s Last Breath’s boundary-pushing technicality. From the successful 2021 EP 180-Degree Murder, they have worsened their sound (their words, not mine) to unleash the ol’ razzle dazzle of See You Tomorrow Baby on unsuspecting feet.

Somehow managing to encapsulate the three-fold overlap of mathcore, djent, and dissodeath in the Venn diagram of excess, the international duo (vocalist Seth Detrick from Oregon, the instrumentalist Tom Stevens from London) also tosses in a cyber metal sorta take on atmospherics, with laser sounds and obnoxious effects atop the fray, while Weston Super Maim’s ultimate claim to fame is their absolute apeshit intensity. Chunky riffs, wild electronics, an utter lack of rhythm, and breakdowns galore add to the insanity – a strange dichotomy of unhinged bananas music and solemn and abstract lyrics. Ultimately, See You Tomorrow Baby blessedly hits the sweet spot between listenability, unhinged ridiculousness, and unashamed excess.

See You Tomorrow Baby by Weston Super Maim

This unrelenting assault comprises a blast for the willing to withstand an utter lack of subtlety and dignified rhythm for mathcore intensity with squonky tech and obscene sounds. The opening title track feels straight outta The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza and Ion Dissonance’s school of thought, with chunky, djenty riffs offering a face full of thick stuffing with stinging dissonant leads and wonky blastbeats, although this insanity truly kicks in with following track “Autistic Kill Trance.” Weston Super Maim does a bang-up job of making deathcore/dissodeath/djent as brutal as possible, then amping it with even more ridiculousness, a trend further shown in “Johnny Menomic,” “Brute Fact,” and the aptly titled “The Bare Maximum” in spacy cybermetal effects and other forms of insanity. It features an expert blend of bananas hugeness, catchy earworms, moments that revel in the hugeness, and just enough melody to contrast the huge bite taken out of your left eardrum. There are four guests on See You Tomorrow Baby,¹ but for better, the duo creates a bulletproof sound that the contributors do little but inject a jolt of energy. The closer “Perfect Meadows in Every Direction” offers punishment aplenty but adds a dimension of exploration to its proceedings.

See You Tomorrow Baby is big, dumb fun. The production only adds to its colossal loudness, which makes the more subdued tracks fall by the wayside. “Slow Hell” and “Kryptonite Renegade” are the best examples, few riffs dominating and some passages feeling like Frontierer or Psyopus copy-and-paste printer jobs, alongside a general and unwelcome subtlety. While “Perfect Meadows in Every Direction” does a bang-up job closing the album in its unique fusion of punishing and contemplative, its eight-minute-and-change runtime can make it feel daunting and distant. These are small potatoes, and ultimately add to the dynamic of the album at large, because you’re not here for boundary-pushing music; you’re here to have your skull caved in by a couple of dudes who make big fat metal.

This album has been on repeat for weeks, because it is both tormenting and insanely fun. The dissonant death metal influence is largely an afterthought to Weston Super Maim, but I can’t tell if it’s because the sonic palette doesn’t focus on it or the duo doesn’t take itself seriously enough. Either way, See You Tomorrow Baby leans hard into djenty deathcore/mathcore with megaton riffs and excess coded into every track, with an obnoxious aesthetic that pairs surprisingly nicely with its lyrical abstractness. With just enough melody and breathing room to give further emphasis to the beatdown at its core, its more-than-reasonable forty-minute runtime ensures that, although never overstaying its welcome, you’ll get your fair share of punishment. Don’t you worry about that.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Self-Released
Websites: westonsupermaim.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/westonsupermaim
Releases Worldwide: March 15th, 2024

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