CW: This review contains descriptions of eating disorders.
Uniform have carved a career out of making disquieting sounds, and the ones that start ‘American Standard’ may be their most disquieting yet. “A part of me! But it can’t be me!” vocalist Michael Berdan snarls with no musical backing at the outset of the album’s 21-minute title track.
Each shout is echoed by a chorus of hideous voices, meant to represent the difficulty of looking at one’s own reflection if, like Berden, you have bulimia nervosa. Instantly, the New York band sound rawer and more vital than ever.
Uniform’s fourth full-length is (structurally, at least) the ‘2112’ of scabrous industrial metal.
Over one side-long opening song and a more episodic second half, the band reject the direction of their previous album, 2020’s ‘Shame’, which emphasised the bouncy industrial end of their palette.
Instead, after the ‘choir from hell’ beginning, the listener is pulled through a black hole of looping, discordant guitars. The screeches and noises break down into herculean post-metal riffs, before a closing stampede through factory-like clanging.
The album’s latter half is no less demanding. This Is Not a Prayer is defined by its barrelling drums, jangling guitars and, again, Berdan’s distorted cries. Clemency follows in a surge of uber-heavy Godflesh riffs, leaving finale Permanent Embrace as the closest thing to ‘accessible’ that ‘American Standard’ offers. Even then, it’s four minutes of whirring chords and ear-bursting synths, so it’s all relative.
The lyrics’ emphasis on the real-life struggles of bulimia, however, makes the sonic horror of ‘American Standard’ feel earned and earnest. Uniform are screaming from the abyss in their most disorienting manner yet – but it’s never been more important to decode what it is that they are saying.
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