Executioner’s Mask - Almost There

Angry Metal Guy 70

As a child of the ’90s, I was not around to understand the nuances of every synth-driven art rock movement that arose in the decades preceding. While the inimitable Cherd of Doom, the illustrious Kenstrocity and the sometimes-imitable Dolphin Whisperer explained to me the differences between post-punk, shoegaze, and goth rock, tossing out names like My Bloody Valentine, The Sisters of Mercy, and Wire, Executioner’s Mask gives no shits – they’re just out here just doing their thing. The quartet’s bio reads “aggressive shoegaze? bleak post punk? goth grunge? whatever” and that’s good enough for me. It better be bleak, artsy, and drowned in fucking noise, and make me wonder how the Cold War is going to end. Third full-length Almost There is, as the name suggests, a progression – an album about “drinking, longing, and surviving.”

I was first attracted to Philly’s Executioner’s Mask because of 2021’s Winterlong, a synth-heavy album that seemed to me like Joy Division covering minor renditions of The Neverending Story soundtrack. While maintaining Jay Gambit’s tastefully droning baritone drawl, Almost There is a far noisier affair, mid-tempo drums faced with a seamless pendulum of harmony and dissonance, bathed in swaths of distortion, reverb, and noise – taking more influence from My Bloody Valentine’s classic Loveless. It’s a simple but effective formula, with tracks ranging from yearning to liturgical to eerie, Executioner’s Mask reflecting the decades of their influence. Ultimately, it’s easy to get lost in the drunken brutalist movements of Almost There, even if it will do nothing to change your mind about whatever genre they conjure.

…Almost There by Executioner’s Mask

The shoegaze trademark saturation of sound is very firmly intact, and fills every crevice that Executioner’s Mask opens up. Built upon this foundation are the dueling guitars of Daniel Gaona and Craig Mickle, whose sustained overlays add a ghostly haze to the proceedings, with only bassist Anthony Charletta and drummer Melissa Lonchambon providing the only tethers to sanity, while Gambit preaches with monotonous urgency like a deranged priest. Tracks like “Sunset in the Valley,” “Lovers in Hell,” and “On Park Row” are nearly hyper-melodic, layered sustaining guitar shining like the morning sun through the dark drunk world that the band populates. However, like the pitch of a drunken tune, sounds are warped and warbling. “Losing a Fixed Game,” “Mezcal Perfume,” and “Failed Dreams II” rely on warbling guitar riffs atop the noisy psychedelia that can’t help but descend into dissonance, effectively searing the melodies into your brain. The darker and more menacing tracks, opener “Devoured” and “A Modest Proposal,” feel nearly liturgical, letting Lonchambon guide the plodding rhythms with nearly ritualistic fervor, while vocals sprawl across with a wicked grin. Gambit’s snarl is a surprisingly formidable instrument, bursting forth with an energetic yell and injecting a jolt of surprise to tracks like “Losing a Fixed Game” and “Sunset in the Valley.” Executioner’s Mask enacts its blend of relentlessly dark, noisy art rock with a hungover groan, its thread of noise coursing through every movement, and you’d be hard-pressed to not get sucked into it.

The most glaring issue with Executioner’s Mask is part of why they are so great: they give no fucks. Much of their stylings can be seen as borrowed from across its counterparts. Gambit’s drawling baritone borrows from Swans’ Michael Gira and The Sisters of Mercy’s Andrew Eldritch, the dueling guitar slurs remind of The Jesus and Mary Chain or The Clash, and the filthy distortion and driving rhythms vibe with the grunge of The Cranberries. This is neither here nor there, as Almost There doesn’t purport to be anything more than who they are. While each track that Executioner’s Mask offers has its own identity and slew of highlights, the album flow does not shine favorably upon all of them. In particular, while the warbling menace of “A Modest Proposal” is its own force to be reckoned with, it sticks out like a sore thumb after the crystalline beauty of “Sunset in the Valley.” Similarly, closer “On Park Row” takes the tragic aura of “Lovers in Hell” in an epic closer that concludes Almost There far too abruptly.

Executioner’s Mask is a slow burn, and downright infectious when its spines sink themselves into your brain. The noise becomes all-enveloping, the vocals sermonic, and the rhythms hypnotizing. Capturing myriad moods and emotions through its complex compositions of harmony, discordance, and distortion atop deceptively simple post-punk dirges, the quintet is more content haunting you with drunken slurs and yearning ambivalence. And I am here for it.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Seeing Red Records
Websites: executionersmask.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/executionersmask
Releases Worldwide: August 30th, 2024

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