Cavalcade

black midi

I got a little taste of what black midi was offering around the time they released their last full-length album. Instrumentally, I thought it was really impressive and it was something that was definitely up my alley. The vocals, however, kinda turned me off. The performance was quite eccentric but the tone of Geordie Greep's voice didn't really jive with me; so I never bothered to check out more. A few days before Cavalcade dropped, something possessed me to check out the track Slow. I was blown away. I loved how spontaneous it was, alternating between these beautiful soft passages and these supper heavy rushes of horns, guitars, and cymbal crashes. The drumming was also insane; super lively but with incredible feel. In fact, after listening to this record, I think I can safely say that drummer Morgan Simpson is among my favourite drummers in music today.

Greep's voice also goes over much better on this record for me. His croon is very tasteful on tracks like Marlene Dietrich, and Chondromalacia Patella, while his insane ramblings on opening track John L and Hogwash and Balderdash only serve to enhance the chaos and clash of instruments behind him. There are also many great angular guitar parts all over this record leading to many memorable moments. One example is the stuttering guitar leads in the middle of Dethroned.

Only towards the end did this record lose a little steam for me. The final track Ascending Forth, is perhaps a bit of an anti-climactic closer seeing as it is one of the more mellow tracks. The song is not that bad, quite pretty actually. Although, with a nearly 10 minute runtime, I find it drags on for a little bit and Greep's voice does come off a little awkward at points. Despite this, I was truly enthralled by this record. I'm kinda kicking myself for not giving them much of a chance before. Going forward, I'm gonna do my best to change that.