Antisweet

Description

Sycomore is a protean sonic mass. A beast letting a few ethereal melodies escape despite its openly sludge foundations. Sycomore takes root in chaos, in soil where no rule can truly apply, where neither dynamics nor codes yet have any authority. Like Antisweet, its fourth album, due out on November 24 on Source Atone Records, its universe aims to be airy, dirty and rocky yet still clinical and hypnotic. Sycomore probably takes its name from this tree which, symbolically, is meant to be a gateway to an beyond, another reality. An adjoining dimension that, here, would be made of creeping, oppressive sounds but above all, and almost paradoxically, liberating ones. Refining its musical rough edges since 2015, the trio made up of members of the grind'n'roll combo Anorak and the stoner band Taman Shud claims total freedom. A wandering spirit that also leads it to flirt as much with noise influences as with purely metal ones. After Phantom Wax (2016), Nectar in 2018 and Bloodstone two years later, the trio is back with a fourth album: Antisweet. As always, Sycomore works here on instinct. This record is therefore both the continuation of everything the trio has accomplished so far and a form of evolution. Better still: Antisweet is even a reaction to the rest of the band’s discography. Some will find a 90s spirit and grunge roots in it, others will notice its post-metal atmospheres and the subtlety of its extreme passages. But however volatile it may be, Antisweet is perfectly thought out and mastered by its creators. Which is almost ironic when you know that this record was born of anger, frustration and those chaotic visions the world around us offers.