Nites Out by Other Lives: For Their Love 2020

Enter The Mirror is quite unlike anything you're likely to hear in 2020 in that it's rooted in an almost outdated '80s extremism - colossal drum fills trade with manically warped keyboards - yet there are so many spellbinding grooves and outlandish hooks it's anything but thrilling . It’s that power-suited swaggering sadism expertly carried off by Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho complete with the chainsaw-wielding gratuity. The appropriately named Killing Time serves to showcase the band’s visceral thrill as Albanese knocks the living shit out of his drum kit with X-Rated levels of brutality all the while heavily treated guitars soar like intergalactic battleships. The killer final flourish sees meaty slabs of bass duelling with a fret-dancing Robert Fripp style solo. This level of intensity is replicated throughout Enter The Mirror leading the listener on some kind of breathless chase. Only on the introductory 2020, with its warm radiating ambience which softly bleeds into the robotic chug of A Warning In The Dark (imagine Kraftwerk jamming with Trans Am and you’re nearly there) does the pace settle into anything but top gear.