Corker Hallways Of Grey

Released
18th October 2024
Label 
Feel It Records
Format

12 Inch

Black

£20.00

‘Pockets full, a statue, can no longer try.  In sand I find it hard to keep asking why.  Torn out some words to say, don’t care about your day’ (Hallways Of Grey)

Corker’s excellent 2023 debut LP, Falser Truth, was a densely layered melding of bristling hardcore, discordant post-punk, and industrial tinged noise rock.  Hallways Of Grey, eschews none of the Cincinnati band’s vibrant experimentation but it has, perhaps, more tightly harnessed their impulses to deliver a follow-up brimming with a vital immediacy.

The deadpan vocal delivery continues to weave its austerely allusive narrative, and the punchily resonant rhythm section is still relentlessly propulsive, almost mechanically fluid.  But the noisy discordance that previously flared has morphed into a sinuous intertwining of crystalline guitar and flourishes of coldly alluring synthesiser.  The hauntingly serpentine melodies that define the title track, Night Ride, and Vital Fall are fiercely contagious.  Meanwhile, Wiring and Nothing In None both fashion a bleakly seductive atmosphere.

And be assured, the band – who share three members with The Drin – still nurture a refreshingly unabated appetite for the off-kilter turn.  Both sides close out with cold wave leaning, electronic-led tracks, Forever Silent and No Necessities, the former featuring a delightfully enigmatic guest vocal turn courtesy of Artificial Go’s Angie Willcutt.  Corker’s embrace is as darkly enticing as ever.

—Foundation Vinyl