Anonymity - Comatose

Anonymity

Comatose
self-released; 2015

3.1 out of 5

By Ted Rogen

The duo of Parker Cousins and Brandon Bryson are Anonymity. They released a four-song EP entitled Comatose. Right off the bat I have to say this EP would have been much more enjoyable if the recording quality was improved by at least fifty percent. The duo was going for a lo-fi vibe but the quality is below what you would consider lo-fi. There isn’t any separation between the guitar and drums, it’s muddy, etc.

The music itself reminded me of a heavy Smashing Pumpkins without bass, lead guitar or vocals. Bryson’s drumming is impressive and he usually unleashes a constant onslaught of beats that are reckless and occasionally sloppy but usually in a good way.

At the end of the day these four songs really could have been one long song. I listened to the EP quite a bit and it really just seemed like one mesh of sounds that weren't distinct from each other. The EP opens with “Falling Through.” Cousins trashes at simple guitar riffs that took me back to the Gish days of Smashing Pumpkins while Bryson implements a similar Jimmy Chamberlin style drumming. The song ascends and descends with minor accents but revolves around a basic theme and progression.   

“Demons” almost reaches the seven-minute mark. The song has a good amount of changes and gets pretty heavy at points. It reaches some peaks towards the end of the song. The next song “Death Omega” is under two minutes and I thought the drumbeat was impressive. That being said the guitar work revolved around basic power chords begging for the song to have vocals. They close with “Primitive (Garage Sessions)” in which the lead guitar was obnoxiously loud compared to everything else. I did like the bullhorn like effect, which added another element to the mix.

I’m not going to pussy foot around the fact that the band will have to improve the production and recording quality if they want to get a significant amount of ears on their music. If the band continues to want to explore the dynamics of drums and guitar they will need to up their game in that department as well. There were some inspired moments but nothing that gave a group like Lightning Bolt a run for their money. 

I could see the band with some improvement creating waves of drone like distortion that they annihilate with chaotic drumming.