by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
There’s an insurmountable weight to Big Mess’ music, and at times, an insurmountable wait too. The Lowell, MA based trio have earned themselves a cult like status among those in the know. To come across the heavy thud and dissonant groove of their instrumental wreckage is to fall in love with the band, but it’s been seven long years since their last release (a split with New Hampshire’s Black Norse) and nearly a decade since their last full length. You’d be excused if you’d thought they’d hung it up, but thankfully, you’d be dead wrong. Big Mess come roaring back to life on Heroic Captains of Industry, a new full length album due out on January 1st. It’s a New Year’s Day miracle and we’re here for it. The album, initially recorded in 2018 saw some delays as life and global pandemics took the focus away from the band, is pure Big Mess, colossally heavy with nuanced writing that see-saws and tugs in opposing directions at will.
There’s a wealth of atmosphere in Big Mess’ songs as chord structures push and pull, rattling in the still air, the band use repetition and space to create their void. Once you’ve been pulled in, there’s nothing left to do but marvel in its wake. “Caoutchouteuse," the record’s first single is a shimmering example of their spacial focus, a song that moves at a slow-pulled pace, opting for seasick progressions and the juxtaposition of sludge and open air freedom. As the dust begins to settle, the avalanche comes toppling over. Rather than a post-rock informed crescendo though, Big Mess pull back and peel at the seams, the course a spiral rather than a straight path. It’s bruising but vivid and then just when you least expect it… there’s a heavenly vocal and twangy guitar lead that come floating out the tangled chaos. It’s one brilliantly unpredictable moment on an album full of them (wait til you hear it’s companion in “Misery Blues”). Big Mess is back.