Review: Massa Nera - Derramar | Querer | Borrar
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| Label: Zegema Beach Records |
There are two sites to MASSA NERA's new album "Derramar | Querer | Borrar". First, the music. And secondly, the message.
Musically the Linden, NJ-outfit continues their way of blending Screamo with Post-Rock, though this time around they have outdone themselves. Without a doubt, "Derramar | Querer | Borrar" is their most impressive work yet. They call to mind the time when this sound was really fucking huge, with bands like ENVY, CITY OF CATERPILLAR and FUNERAL DINER on the forefront. Also the time, when European Screamo was at its absolute peak. There was a phase in my life, when I was kinda sick of all those Skramz-bands implementing Post-Rock into their sound. That probably was around the late 2000s or something. It wasn't like I was totally done with that sound, as I remember liking the shit out of AUSSITOT MORT's "Montuenga" or that DROWNING WITH OUR ANCHORS-LP. I just had the feeling, that it was overdone and that everything was said. But Screamo transformated, evolved, got more diverse in the following years. I guess, nowadays I can appreciate a record in that fashion again. Especially when it's as sincere, as well-crafted as the second MASSA NERA-LP...
What I appreciate about this record is, that it stays true to the pioneers of that sound. This is no blown up Art-Rock with a few shouts or a few breakdowns here and there... this is Screamo in all aspects. The mood is extremely dark, the heavy parts are fast and yeah, real heavy, the screams are desperate, the musicianship is soft and beautiful as well as frenetic and caustic. The whole feeling is just right. Despite incorporating a lot of Post-Rock-aesthetics into their sound, this isn't the kind of constructed, calculated Post-Rock where every small bit of noise has got to be on the right place in the right time. They've put a lot of thought into those songs and they flow well throughout, but the emotion, the chaos, the uncertainty is always there. In essence it's a cool mix of complexity and rage. Another thing I do like is, that MASSA NERA don't follow any sort of specific patterns with their songs. Sure, you get two or three more lengthy songs, but they never consist of endless strumming for the sake of dragging it out. Most of the time they manage to get their style across over the course of 2 or 3 minutes and that's something that I totally dig.
Speaking about certain tracks is silly anyway, cause "Derramar | Querer | Borrar" is a massive oeuvre of an album. Most of the time, you can't make out when one track ends and the other begins. You can feel the effort the four-piece put into the whole tracklist and it paid out big time, as the record is a joy to listen to from start to finish, despite clocking in at nearly 50 minutes playtime. And that is long for a Screamo-record in 2022. The one song I'd like to mention is "Shapeshift". That track takes a heavy turn, 80 seconds in. What starts with Screamo, gets transformated into... Techno? I've showed this track to a friend of mine, who's not into Screamo, but in this kind of of dance-y yet not too hectic kind of electronica and he gave his props... though he was lightly confused about the clash of styles. The best association I can come up with are videogames like "Wipeout" or "Extreme-G". I enjoyed this kind of music linked to those future racers, but here it feels thrown in. To their defense, I wouldn't have had a better idea of implementing it and think it's pretty gutsy putting it in the middle of the record. Though, it's the only time where I feel that something takes me "out" of the whole vibe...
...now I was speaking about that other site of "Derramar | Querer | Borrar". The other site to the music, that also goes hand in hand with it... the message. The lyrical content. The sentiment of the record. The whole presentation of the record is excellent and you can sense the soul that was put in from the very beginning. Each format (vinyl, tape, CD) got its unique design and it's in best Screamo/DIY-philosophy as well. I love the design of the vinyl-booklet and how the lyrics are put into the spot light. The lyrical content is heavy as fuck and just too much to cover in a few sentences. "Derramar | Querer | Borrar" means something like "to shed/to lose | to want | to delete" and it seems like these are the three phases the band goes through over the course of this concept album. They're dealing with questions about existensialism ("existence is so absurd / existence of the absurd") and the meaning of living, they're fighting through mental illness and depressions, and heavily reflect their lives, our lives. Pessmistic? Realistic? Honest? I'll leave that up to you, the listener. It's too heavy and too complex anyway to speculate about it, so just feel it yourself...
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