‘Promise freedom, prey on weakness, capture language, snap your fingers, prey on weakness, lay in grass, lust for ignorance’ (Figament Of Reality)

As screamo has evolved, it has become ever more expansive, broadening its palette from the unhinged velocity of its roots.  This is a trend that Los Angeles’ Nuvolascura continue to largely eschew on this, their third album and follow-up to 2020’s As We Suffer From Memory And Imagination.  This is not to imply a lack of invention or a monochrome cadence.  Amid the whiplash changes in pace, there are flourishes of haunting melody, flares of dissonant electronics, fleeting moments of reflection, but they are so deftly absorbed into the band’s remorseless battery that they feel utterly organic to their sound.

The writhing, twisting compositions intuitively unfurl so as to feel almost improvisational in conception, yet their visceral intensity speaks to a sound that has been honed to its leanest expression, any extravagance mercilessly exorcised.  Taut leads skitter.  Slabs of muscular riffage erupt.  Songs dissolve and reassert themselves with discordant abandon, while the limber rhythm section morphs without hesitation to match these ceaseless contortions.  Figament Of Reality and Cordiform Projection vividly embody these seething oscillations.

The raw, harrowing vocals conjure up a fractured, bleakly allusive stream of consciousness.  They grapple with both the constant battle to escape the chains of depression and addiction together with more directly political expressions.  The latter draw on an anarchist framing to explore themes of community organisation and the power of collective resistance.