Darker With The Day

This morning's episode features an interview with John Davis and Lou Barlow of The Folk Implosion, who have just reunited for their first album in twenty-four years, Walk Thru Me, which was released on 28th June through Joyful Noise Recordings.

Plus the following review, featured just prior to Golden Age by Gil Cerrone.

Gil Cerrone: Consumer (Creation Records/No Funeral Records/Tomb Tree Records)

Released July 12th, 2024

It’s a good time to be a screamo fan in Australia, as recently there has been a string of exceptional releases from groups such as Blind Girls, Doris and Hanoi Traffic. Naarm/Melbourne five-piece Gil Cerrone can now also be added to that list. Featuring former Meanjin/Brisbane resident Joshua Strange, ex-member of To The North, Quiet Steps and Nature Trails, Gil Cerrone has previously released two EPs, Eastern Ranges and Coronach, as well as a split with Finland’s Letterbombs. 

Consumer is Gil Cerrone’s first full-length, collaboratively released by Australia’s Cremation Records as well as No Funeral and Tomb Tree Records, who both operate out of Canada. Constructed around a single song, Parasocial Relationships, which is split into three parts, Consumer is an ambitious record that is as complex and compelling as screamo can be. 

Interspersed amongst Parasocial Relationships are the album’s other tracks. These four, additional songs —not counting the untitled intro— complete the album, punctuating it with short, cathartic bursts of noise. Gil Cerrone, however, are not just volume and throat-shredding vocals. Unlike some screamo bands, they understand the necessity that shifting dynamics play in both building and easing tension, allowing the listener some, usually brief, respite before returning and assaulting them once more. 

Trauma Bonding is the album’s most obvious —and affecting— example of the band utilising the loud/quiet/loud dynamic. Opening with a clean, delayed riff the song builds slowly before descending into a brief interlude, featuring only drums and vocals. It’s hard not to be moved by the rawness of vocalist Michael Zuccon’s cries; I may not be able to understand all of what he is saying, but I can feel every ounce of his emotion.

At one minute and fifty-nine seconds, Golden Age is —again, not counting the intro— Consumer’s shortest song. Containing all that one needs to know about the group in one concise statement, Golden Age calls to mind the ferocity and the fury of Orchid’s Chaos Is Me, a touchstone —and still untouchable— example of the screamo genre. Although they are unafraid to experiment, songs such as Golden Age demonstrate that Gil Cerrone understand the history and foundations of their genre.

To many, screamo is a one-dimensional mélange of distortion and screaming that is not just impenetrable but intolerable. Viewing it solely through this narrow, prejudicial lens ignores the genre’s purpose and the outlet it provides for fans and artists alike. Screamo is, at its heart, pure, undiluted expression and a true form of art as catharsis. Gil Cerrone possesses a sense of empathy that may not be immediately visible. When Zuccon sings, he’s not just screaming for himself, but for those who want to and can’t. Consumer is a Molotov cocktail of emotion, aimed at a society that leaves one with few options but to scream.

Nick Stephan