If you’re going with that atrocious mustard-and-pastels eyesore of an album cover, you damn well better back it up with some kick-ass sounds…
Recorded with notorious noise-rock curmudgeon Steve Albini, Success is the sixth full-length from this Canadian trio since their 1999 inception. Whereas the previous KEN Mode‘s blended spindly and vicious post-hardcore with Albini-influenced skronking noise, Success finds itself entirely within the confines of the latter, homage to the glories of Amphetamine Reptile and Touch & Go. Consequently, it’s a markedly less aggressive affair than what came before, though it’s certainly still abrasive, and it’s anything but mellow.
“Blessed” kicks the proceedings off with a squall of guitar feedback that leads into a staccato two-note riff buoyed by Skot Hamilton’s beautifully and perfectly distorted bass. Guitarist/vocalist Jesse Matthewson shout-sings about proverbial shit tossed against proverbial walls and stubborn battering rams of perpetual loss – Success is an album seemingly inspired by the traditional notions thereof, born of the Matthewson brothers’ initial forays into the realms of cubicles and time-clocks contrasted against their artistic inclinations. (Both spend, or have spent, time in the accounting world when not finding underground success with KEN Mode.) Guest cello from Natanielle Felicitas competes with guest “noise” from Dylan Walker and Jesse, the whole track building to a cacophonous collapse. (Felicitas’ cello returns for some haunting lines in “The Owl,” more prominent there than on “Blessed.”)
When Jesse intones “I would like to learn how to kill the nicest man in the world” on “These Tight Jeans,” it’s the most immediate moment on the album, leading into Success’ greatest track. Background vocals from Jill Clapham provide the response in the chorus. “Jeans” is Success’ most straightforward song, one of its punk-est, and alongside the shout-along “I can’t stop thinking about your skin” refrain of “I Just Liked Fire,” its catchiest. The guitars stutter and scream, the tones somewhere between a machine press and shattering glass; the bass rumbles in that fuzztoned bite; the drums push the whole thing forward in controlled chaos.
Success’ first half contains its initial highlights – after the mid-album turning point of “Management Control,” the second half isn’t quite as immediate, but it’s no less grand. The final two tracks – “A Catalog Of Small Disappointments” and particularly the sparse drive of “Dead Actors” – showcase a further toned-down KEN Mode that serves as relief from the Jesus Lizard-y clamor that precedes it, slowing down the pace and paring back the noise as the album drifts to a close.
With Success, KEN Mode has scaled back the violence that drove Venerable and Entrench, and while long-time listeners may decry the downsizing of the hardcore in favor of the noise-rock, the results are nevertheless aggressive and appropriately electrifying, if not as vicious as Venerable. Albini’s famously hands-off production is the perfect fit for KEN Mode’s exploration of this half of their sound – he’s the noise-rock guru, after all, and throughout Success, they prove themselves to be a very capable noise-rock band. It’s an unexpected but logical sidestep for these Canadians, but it works, and the end result is suitably titled.
