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Flourishing - A Momentary Sense of the Immediate World

Flourishing don’t know what kind of band they want to be, and I hope they never figure it out. Much like guitarist/vocalist Garett Bussanick’s other project Wetnurse, this group moves seamlessly among metal, hardcore, noise, industrial, and grindcore. They do it very well, which can’t be said for many other genre-jumping spazz bands.

[audio: FLOURISHING_HARVESTING.mp3]

“Industrial” has come to mean very different things in regards to extreme music, but Flourishing should be the band to bring that tag back to respectability. Right from opener “Harvesting”, with its warehouse noise samples and skyscraper-climbing riff, A Momentary Sense of the Immediate World (The Path Less Traveled, 2010) is out to jackhammer your face. The more melodic passages in “Fixture” and “Watching Sparrows” draw heavily from fellow NYC noisemakers Unsane and Helmet. The snare drum sound, especially on “Harvesting” and “Snake Charmer”, recalls Helmet circa Meantime. Despite being a three-piece, the band forms a massive wall of sound with a live feel. Bands like this thrive on the primitive; if there were caves in Chelsea, these guys would be living in one.

Flourishing are a band of their location; if they hailed from elsewhere, they wouldn’t be the same. Each song is heavy and unrelenting, pushing down like August mugginess in Manhattan. This band screams into the city night with raised fists, throwing off the weights of hopelessness and making some damn fine music in the process.

— Chris Rowella

Amazon (CD, MP3)
Relapse (CD)
The Path Less Traveled (CD)