It’s not often that you hear an album that will utterly annihilate any expectations or preconceptions you may have had before hitting play. Consisting of ex-members of The Ghost of A Thousand and Astrohenge (amongst others), Yard’s debut album ‘Excitation Thresholds’ is an absolute monster of a record that hurls them into a league of their own.
Without hesitation ‘Future Tyrants’ erupts with instantaneous and pummelling ferocity. Wasting no time in exhibiting new themes, the track takes on an almost black metal form, after the apt screams “we told you their voice would be heard”. As the shortest song on the album, it gets the point across and demonstrates just how vicious this album is going to be from start to end.
Maintaining the momentum, ‘Capes Of Flesh’ features the first use of dual vocals as well as another vocal style that could, quite lazily, be considered as Converge-esque. The same can be said for ‘The Attic’ which also features those Jacob Bannon-ish cries and presents the band’s further exploration of different musical genres as it closes out with heavy post-rock elements.
Whilst ‘Knowable & Whole’ is made up of the more standardised verse chorus verse structure and makes use of Thomas Lacey’s cleaner vocals; it’s a far cry from any of his previous band’s outputs. “I’m bored of describing all the fucks I give no more,” Lacey spits before ripping into the next two-minute barrage that is ‘War Tourist’.
The closest ‘Excitation Thresholds’ gets to even a moments respite comes (albeit briefly) in the forms of ‘Everything You Loved Reduced To Rubble’ and ‘BL-755’. Initially the two tracks are slower in pace and more doom laden than the other songs on the album but they’re no less ruthless. ‘Everything You Loved…’ proves to be a challenge not to nod your head to, with its plodding and discordant breakdown, whereas ‘BL-755’ is far more bleak and paints a vivid picture in one’s mind of a hopeless, barren wasteland.
As ‘Moon Choker’ comments on the modern fixation with mobile phones and social media, ‘Bail Recommendation’ revisits the aforementioned dual vocal patterns alongside some much eerier and more experimental vocal stylings. Together they build into the album’s penultimate wall of sound which slowly peters out to allow for one last inhalation before plunging into ‘The Shadow Stealer’.
Unlike the other tracks that make up ‘Excitation Thresholds’, ‘The Shadow Stealer’ clocks in just under the eight-minute mark and harkens back to the sound that Yards first established for themselves on their previous EP releases. That said, their growth as a band is evident as ‘The Shadow Stealer’ is truly their magnum opus. Layers upon layers of sound add to its enormity, all the while showcasing the other elements Yards have started to incorporate into their music. The track itself acts as an overarch spanning everything the band have recorded up to that point, calling upon the black metal, post-rock, doom and chaotic, hardcore punk stylings that have defined their sound.
As the song gradually dies down layer by layer, it’s as though a weight has been lifted. Sounding out with a gentle hum, it’s now safe to stop holding your breath behind gritted teeth and breathe again.
Yards have created something very special and should be proud of themselves. ‘Excitation Thresholds’ is abrasive, in your face and regardless of your volume settings, it’s fucking loud. For anyone who still has their doubts, good luck trying to pigeonhole this venomous and incomparable masterpiece.
JAMES DAVENPORT