Volcano! - Paperwork

Chicago’s Volcano! may well be mistaken for the aural equivalent of finding yourself being locked in at the crèche in IKEA, an intense experience of claustrophobia soundtracked by hyperactive children playing with a drum machine. Whilst that doesn’t quite capture what the band sound like, it’s mostly because the band’s sound is so hard to pin down.

A few listens in and you find there’s bucket loads of melody wading around in that pool of noise (‘Fairy Tale’ is a good example), though at times there is simply too much going on to fully appreciate what you can hear. Opening track ‘Performance Evaluation Shuffle’ is a good a taster for the rest of the album, a frenetic clash of drums, distorted guitars and stop start rhythms, whilst the beautiful ‘Astronomer’s Ballad’ is the album highlight.

Their debut album, ‘Beautiful Seizure’, raised a few eyebrows upon its release back in 2006, fusing jazz and fuzzy guitars into a sound that the band seem to have stripped down for their follow up. Lead singer Aaron With’s crooning isn’t a million miles away from early day Muse sprinkled with Robert Smith; the unique mix of sounds proves to be the bands biggest selling point.