Birds in Row – Cottbus

Mark this band’s name on your agenda ‘cause you’ll be hearing a lot from them in the future. Birds in Row are a talented bunch from France with little concern for mass appeal or easy categorization, mixing the bile of punk, the rawness of crust and the muscular power of hardcore into a cohesive, exciting and abrasive whole. That melding is clearly still a work somewhat in progress, let’s not forget this is their debut work and some songs seem to work better than others, but on the overall “Cottbus” shows a band with an enormous potential.

They remind me mostly of the sadly defunct Modern Life is War, just like the US act Birds in Row eschew traditional song structures, offering instead a demented and emotional sound that revolves around angular rhythms, dissonant chords, spastic beats and caustic screams.

It’s raucous, abrasive but still somewhat disciplined as everything works for the song and doesn’t end up sounding disjointed or pretentious. Plus, there’s none of that emo crooning or those conventional breakdowns that are in vogue nowadays to be found here and any work that could be associated with hardcore and admirably dodges the cliché emo tag and the metal prefix has to be the product of some clever, inventive and talented individuals. (7.2/10)

David Alexandre

Band info: www.birdsinrow.free.fr

Label info: www.throatruinerrecords.bigcartel.com

For fans of: Modern Life is War, The Hope Conspiracy, Give Up the Ghost