Almost exactly five years ago, the Los Angeles screamo band Novolascura released the jagged, expressionistic album As We Suffer From Memory And Imagination. With that record, Novolascura earned a rep as one of the fiercest, most intense bands on a national scene full of fierce and intense bands. They've been fully present since then, touring and appearing on the 2023 compilation Balladeers, Redefined, so it's a little surprising to learn that Nuvolascura went five years without another album. But the five years is up, and the new Novolascura album is here.
Today, Novolascura release their full-length How This All Ends, and on first listen it's at least as overwhelming as the last one. The band changes tempos and dynamics quickly and abruptly -- sometimes into seasick metallic grooves, sometimes into murky ambient noise, sometimes into rafter-shaking melody. Vocalist Erica Schultz has a tremendous, passionate scream. All their different parts combine to form a cathartic, disorienting whole. Most of the tracks are short and feverish, but the six-minute closer "polar destinies" is some kind of epic. If you want to break bricks over your head while crying -- we've all been there -- this is a fitting soundtrack. Listen below.
How This All Ends is out now on Zegema Beach/I.Corrupt.
