2 Apr 2019

Tree Fingers reviews Gum Takes Tooth's Arrow


They say:

“Gum Takes Tooth” is the sort of title that immediately brings about a sense of squirming, anxious discomfort. Perhaps it triggers a shock of dental phobia, or the memory of a nauseating medical video you had no interest in seeing in high school biology (I, too, remember the time I saw my first live human heart). It’s when you really start to sink yourself into Gum Takes Tooth’s momentous Arrow, however, that the duo’s intentions all reveal themselves. The imagery becomes all the more unforgiving – an unstoppable, world-ending catastrophe, destructive in its path, hellbent on engulfing and abolishing all that we know. And if you think Arrow is only indicative of a dystopian future set years from now, one that we all will never have to live through, you’d be mistaken – keyboardist/vocalist Jussi Brightmore found inspiration for Arrow in the rapid urbanisation and grim underbellies of the cities we live in right now.

Metal fans may remember a similar concept explored on Imperial Triumphant’s Vile Luxury in 2018, only instead of it being New York City that inspired that album’s cacophony of avant-garde metal and jazz, the city of London is the focal point for Gum Takes Tooth, and their blend of apocalyptic noise rock and cerebral electronic reflects the overwhelming, perpetual bustle of the city. “Gold Chrome Hearts” and “A Still Earth” are crushing, impenetrable slow-burners, while “The Arrow” and “No Walls, No Air” twist sputtering electronics around relentless rock drumming (which is fucking on point throughout this record’s entirety)...

Read the rest here: Tree Fingers

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