Today's Bandcamp deepdive artist is London based trio Broken Links, with their third album, and first one in six years, 'Conflict::States'. What drew me to them was a simple combination of enjoying what I heard from their lead single of the album, and their description of their sound: Goth-Electro, Post-Punk Pop-Rock. Genres are for weaklings, but lending so many musical ideas, especially ones that are very much trending right now, could be the recipe for a hollow, messy, and ultimately shambolic listen; is there something here that makes the band stand out at all, other than their intriguing description?
I want to discuss the couple of blemishes that stuck out to me on this album first. There are some notable weaker tracks on this album, and the momentum, as such, feels a little all over the place; the album definitely hits its stride around the half-way mark, but there is just a bit of sputtering going on before it revs up to full gear, especially in regards to the opening track. On top of that, production is a bit lacking at times, with everything sounding just a little too compressed and claustrophobic; there is so much packed into these songs, I would have loved to have truly heard each element being given a decent amount of breathing space. Furthermore, the mixing of the drums at times is a little too loud, with each hit of the snare or a tom sounding like a gun shot, drowning out the other elements of the songs.
However, despite these flaws... I was left surprisingly impressed by this album. 'Conflict::States' is by no means a perfect album, but when it's good, my word, is it phenomenal.
Now, whilst the production does have those aforementioned flaws, I have to give the band credit for absolutely nailing the tone of some of the instruments on this track, particularly the bass lines; good lord, the bass on this album packs one hell of a wallop when it wants to. The absolutely filthy bass tone on 'Cold War' is the perfect accompaniment to the fantastically abrasive electronic noises and glitches overlaid across the track, whilst the bass line on 'Replicas' only adds to the dark and gothic dance-rock stylings of the track, leaving it almost feeling like a strange yet decidedly great amalgamation of Turbowolf and Muse. Those Muse comparisons come up again on the track 'Pioneers', especially in the excellent backing vocals portion of this track, but don't mistake me for saying the band sounds like they're simply ripping of the style of other artists; this is very much a case of influence, not theft.
The band understate their progressive stylistic tendancies in their self-descriptions, and it's a damn shame, because there are some fantastic prog rock elements scattered across the album that ought to have a spotlight shone upon; 'Antibiolotics' has a cracking guitar solo that could have come straight from a Coheed & Cambria album, whilst 'Eras' is a nebulous, experimental affair that flirts with all manner of music genres, and concludes with a punchy progressive climax. 'Goth-Electro Post-Punk Pop-Rock' is one hell of a descriptor, but I definitely thing you could fit 'Prog' in there too.
'Fatalism is a brutal, dark, gothic discotheque, and is probably the highlight of the album. It's a delightfully theatrical affair that feels not only sublimely relevant sonically, but also wholly unique; the 80's callbacks that are so popular in music right now are here, but they're warped into a brilliantly twisted and malevolent sound, with pounding, lurching percussion, and this absolutely downright juicy bassline. That gloominess is translated perfectly in a different sonic format on 'Zealots', with its huge crashing walls of sound and winding yet explosive vocals, and even more so on the ambient and bleak closer 'Disconnect' which feels like a panic attack in sonic form.
Gothic, post-punk music feels very much in vogue at the moment; trawling through Bandcamp, sometimes it can feel like every band and their grandmother wants to have a go at it. We get the good, such as Adoring's debut EP, and we get the bad, such as AFI's latest album. But what Broken Links have provided on 'Conflict::States' feels like one of the most distinctly unique takes on such genres I've heard yet; a gothic disco set against apocalyptic skylines. It's by no means perfect, but by the end of it, I was absolutely ready to grab my dance shoes and my protest picket sign at the same time. Go give it a listen and see how you find it.
74/100
Original article: https://www.albumoftheyear.org/user/vinylfantasy/album/386097-conflictstates/