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| Photo Credit: Matt Taylor |
Floral Patterns are a four-piece screamo band from Portland, Oregon whose debut EP, The Time It Takes To Get From Place To Place And How People Change was released today. This four-track offering is an explosive breath of fresh air, blending the melodic aspects of emo and post-rock into their cathartic screamo foundation. Fans of bands such as Suis La Lune, Pianos Become The Teeth, State Faults, William Bonney, Old Gray and The Saddest Landscape will take an immediate interest in this. Without a doubt this is one of the best EP's I've heard this year, and an incredible start for a band sure to blow up in the near future.
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| Photo Credit: Thomas Mansanti |
The EP opens up with "Decay (Alone)", introducing interpolated film dialogue, giving the listener an immediate emotional crisis before the song has even kicked in. What follows are heavy octave-chords contrasted with clean, gentle arpeggios, while the vocals shout over each other, before descending into an instrumental over more dialogue. This track makes fantastic use of dynamics, with full breaks in momentum with just a single sustained chord before charging back in again. It finally closes out with a monumental crescendo that breaks into disarray, and after just one track I was hooked on this band.
"That Scene In Fight Club Where Edward Norton Looks In The Mirror And Sees Brad Pitt Instead Of Himself" introduces a screamier Listener-esque spoken word segment at the beginning, with a low bass rumble and atmospheric guitar work below it. This builds into one of the most melodic tracks, with the guitars taking a heavy post-rock influence, and the track building and crescendoing instead of following any linear structure. The vocals stand out with one hell of a passionate performance, making the song's 6-minute runtime feel like 6 seconds.
"Before I Self Destruct" features the most broken vocals on this entire EP, which are absolutely heart-wrenching. They are really the main feature on this track, with an incredible performance to boot. The instrumental plays fairly straight-forward, with a descending chord pattern and reverb-washed guitar tones that compliment the song's honest simplicity.
The closing track, "We Can't Stop Here, This Is Marlboro Country" brings back new film excerpts, before erupting into the heaviest Floral Patterns have been thus far. Eventually it falls into a nice bass/drum-lead instrumental break, with sparse guitar work, but heavy reverb shimmer. The screamed vocals pull back in, alternating lines between them. A single breath is given before they fly into a heavy heaven-ward outro crescendo.
You can listen to The Time It Takes To Get From Place To Place And How People Change in full on Bandcamp below. They also have some tour dates coming up with the also-incredible Reveries. More info on those shows can be found below.
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