Bone Dance - Bone Dance

November 22, 2012

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The infusion of noise rock, ambient and crust into latter-day grindcore is a welcome trend. Bands like
Gaza, Psychic Limb, Torch Runner, and southern Idaho’s Bone Dance have been pushing the genre’s
boundaries with flourishes as disparate as Western-tinged acoustic passages and AmRep-style tempos
and signature changes. Bone Dance sticks more to the latter on their debut full-length; patterns change
at the drop of a hat, and if you’re not paying attention it’s like an aural punch to the temple.

There are moments of order within the chaos. After spazz-grinding tracks like “Comfort” and “Conniver”
charge out of the gate, “Writhing In Ecstasy” and “White Guilt” slow things down and soak in a Jesus
Lizard/Hammerhead aura of unsettlingly angular riffs. Have you ever looked around at a show during a
song everyone knows? It doesn’t matter what kind of music it is, there are always people nodding their
heads to the beat. This does not happen with Bone Dance. Just when you think they’ve settled into a
groove, it changes. They are part of the last bastion making truly off-putting music. Mainstream pop
fans might be frightened of black or death metal, but most of it still falls into a 4/4, verse/chorus/verse
pattern. The songs on this LP deliberately push most people away, which make them that much more
appealing to us weirdos.

“Children Having Children” and “Barren” put the riff blender setting back up to Liquefy. They are
tornadoes of harsh but discernible vocals, negative space, and otherworldly drum fills. The production
is impeccable, landing in the sweet spot between visceral and slick. The album clocks in at less than
40 minutes, a perfect amount of space for this type of record. Bone Dance has already mastered their
domain, and listening to them push it upwards and onwards will be exciting to say the least.

— Chris Rowella

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HEAR BONE DANCE

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