Bilirubin

Fourteen years after releasing its first self-titled demo, US raw BM / punk act Bilirubin has put out another self-titled demo, this time featuring songs that the band played on the 2013 live session split release "Live on My Castle of Quiet, 7.6.2013", the latter also including live work by other US BM bands I'm familiar with like Blue Hummingbird on the Left and Volahn). Bilirubin plays a very blistering and aggressive style of BM / punk, more or less galloping continuously with hardly a pause for breath. Indeed, the band not only never pauses for a breather, its vocalist usually screams and shrieks like a leopard possessed by whatever demons live in the universe of leopards. The drumming never goes anywhere below fast 'n' furious in pace and the guitars have a sharp metallic edge as they carve up the black space with dense bubbling, scrabbling riffs. At the same time though, the five tracks that appear are distinct from one another in their riffing, key and even mood.

At just over 20 minutes, this recording should be heard and savoured in its entirety for as many times as needed to appreciate the speedy melodies and changes in details that distinguish one song from the next. The whole work turns out to be a winding tapestry of riffs, beats, rhythms and moods that never stay the same for very long but are always shifting beneath the noisy aggression and screeching voices. The tracks that stand out for me the most though, for their character and mood, are "Shower Shell" which starts off a bit steadier than the others with a rock'n'roll groove before detouring onto a path that becomes more and more chaotic in a dreamy, delirious sort of way; the darkly foreboding "The Inevitable" with its pain; and "Sing to a Fish" with catchy riffs that almost seem full of longing and melancholy. All three tracks come in the latter half of the recording, so listeners need to be a little patient early on.

Alas, the demo is over too quickly, and I need to hear it again just to catch the changes in mood in what initially comes across as a set of minimalist no-nonsense raw black / punk songs. The more I hear this, the more I can detect something approaching dreamy psychedelia, sinister darkness and an intense heartfelt yearning in parts. Bilirubin clearly has a talent for writing and performing apparently simple songs that end up burrowing deep into your brain cells with catchy riffs and unexpected emotion. Let's hope we don't have to wait so long for their next release.