Christiansen
Stylish Nihilists
Revelation
“Hey genre, are you lonely,” Christiansen ask on their fourth full-length disc. Well, surely not after this album. Genre-blending emo, this foursome’s inspired post-hardcore defies easy categorization and lazy cross-references. Now sonically, Christiansen aren’t shockingly original for anyone familiar with At the Drive-in, Glassjaw and even early-day Elliott. But these guys still have something to add to the established catalogue of emo, bringing something fresh and assured to an increasingly stale genre. Christiansen add a beautiful, wide-open voice to the music’s inherent anguish and tense claustrophobia, injecting the melody lines with hedonist glam glory, as if discovering beauty in the face of misery, reaching for compassion before the threat of loneliness. Christiansen succeeds with a fiery attack and an undying musical presence, struggling to create music that stays complex yet immediately accessible, layered while melody-driven. Stylish Nihilists presents a band finally in full control of their sound, of where they’re going and of what they’re trying to do with their music. And Christiansen prove to be surprisingly efficient in getting their point across, on what is their best and most confident album yet.
Revelation Records: http://www.revelationrecords.com/
