Review: Daughters – You Won’t Get What You Want
Daughters just put out the album of the year and the comeback album of the decade.
When Ipecac records previewed the track “Satan in the Wait” from You Won’t Get What You Want, Daughters’ first album in 8 years, it was one of those times where suddenly no other music mattered and all I wanted to hear at all hours of the day was that one piece of music. “Satan in the Wait” is overwhelming and monstrous, but not psychotically violent the way you would expect a Daughters track to be. Instead, it’s as boundless and uncaring as the inky depths of the cosmos – a malignant tumor in the fabric of space-time that will consume you and everything you’ve ever known. It will never die because it never began – it simply is.
“Satan in the Wait” is not an aberration – all ten tracks of “You Won’t Get What You Want” are steeped in eldritch dread and delivered with a patient menace to rival the likes of Swans or Neurosis. Even the tracks that rely on the chaotic hardcore vocabulary of previous Daughters releases are crafted with palpable restraint and a deep understanding of how to create maximum tension with minimal components. This album may owe more to the unhinged protoindustrial ramblings of Suicide and Throbbing Gristle than to the mathcore lineage of Botch, but a familiarity with the light-speed anarchy of older Daughters releases only makes these relatively straightforward compositions feel more overwhelming, like staring from below at the blade of a freshly sharpened guillotine that refuses to fall.
The timbres of this record are fascinating. The drums are soaked in reverb and the vocals continuously suffocate under their own weight. Synth, guitar, and bass are given equal presence in the mix such that dynamics come primarily from the instruments’ alternating presence and absence, leaving active mixing unnecessary. Sometimes the synth and strings are clearly distinct from one another, sometimes they make a cohesive whole, and sometimes it’s actually impossible to be sure which fucked up sounds are coming from what instrument.
When I grow up, I want to be Daughters. They are a rare case of a band “maturing” without getting more boring or less confrontational. Like Napalm Death and Humanfly before them, Daughters have proven that they understand how to make terrifying art regardless of the tools chosen. The only mistake I see in the creation of this album is the title, since this sick-as-hell record is, in fact, everything I ever wanted.
4.5 out of 5 flaming toilets ov hell
You can purchase You Won’t Get What You Want here, stay hip to the happenings of Daughters here, and can see them on tour if you happening to be in the following cities on their corresponding dates –
November 13 – Seattle WA – Highline
November 15 – Denver CO – Larimer Lounge
November 17 – Chicago IL – Beat Kitchen
November 18 – Chicago IL – Beat Kitchen
April 5 – St Petersburg RU – MOD Club
April 6 – Moscow RU – Pravda
April 8 – Munich DE – Backstage Club
April 9 – Stuttgart DE – Juha West
April 10 – Paris FR – Point Ephemere
April 11 – Brussels BE – Botanique
April 12 – Berlin DE – Cassiopeia
April 13 – Hamburg DE – Hafenklang
April 14 – Tilburg NL – Roadburn
April 15 – Ramsgate UK – Ramsgate Music Hall
April 16 – Bristol UK – The Exchange
April 17 – Manchester UK – The Deaf Institute
April 18 – Glasgow UK – The Hug and Pint
April 19 – Leeds UK – Brudenell Social Club
April 20 – London UK – The Lexington
