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New York's RASPBERRY BULBS (featuring members of BONE AWL and RORSCHACH,) make their Relapse Records debut with their highly anticipated new album, Before the Age of Mirrors. Forever defying the conventions of underground music, RASPBERRY BULBS continue to push the envelope via their subversive take on occult Punk and Black Metal. Through maniacal lyricism, raw guitar snarls channeled through gritty, 4 track recordings, and a wall of distortion, RASPBERRY BULBS suffocate the listener every step of the way.
Our take: Before the Age of Mirrors is the Relapse debut from this long-running New York band. While I haven’t been diligent about picking up every single Raspberry Bulbs record, they’ve been on my radar for several years and their three previous albums are records I still spin often. If you haven’t heard them, they’re often described as “blackened punk,” but besides black metal and punk there are also significant strains of AmRep-style noise rock and avant-garde and experimental music in their sound. That’s true of Before the Age of Mirrors, which stays true to the band’s aesthetic but feels more ambitious and composed than their previous records. At any given moment, Raspberry Bulbs might sound like Darkthrone, Unsane, Alice Coltrane, or a primitive and noisy band from a Punk and Disorderly compilation. Sometimes they can hit several of those points in the same track (such as the first track here, “Spitting From on High,” which features a spooky black metal intro and outro (complete with tremolo picking), a middle part that sounds like blackened noise rock, and snotty, punk-y distorted vocals), while they reserve the more out-there moments for the album’s four interlude segments. These interludes are some of my favorite moments on the record, not only lending variety to the sonic palette but also serving as a respite from the onslaught of heaviness. Recommended fans of bands like Celtic Frost that find a delicate balance between the primitive and the progressive.