Scarve

Mosh-ready polyrhythms and bowel churning down-tuning seem to be all the rage these days. Scarve are another one of those groups polishing up Meshuggah’s angular crunch with a more palatable melodic sheen, although Scarve have more than enough tricks up their sleeve to be evaluated on their own terms. Ex-Darkane vocalist Lawrence Makaroy lends his distinctive style to the proceedings, which should be enough to draw in fans of Darkane’s early work alone. The percussion of Dirk Verbeuren is faultless and the thundering production allows the low end to resonate to a nearly unfathomable degree. While occasionally meandering off into progressive layering and increased technicality, the guitars generally stick to crushing, mid-paced grooves littered with jarring shifts in time and pacing. Much more interesting and dynamic than the likes of Threat Signal or Mnemic, Scarve are standing head and shoulders above the competition in both songwriting and production, and will inevitably move onto bigger things.