Review: “The Seven Crowns” by Trounce

Instigated by the prestigious Roadburn Festival who commissioned Hummus Records for an exclusive project to present on stage at the 2022 incarnation of the event, Trounce was born of the mind of Coilguns guitarist Jonathan Nido. Taking inspiration from Dark Funeral and Oranssi Pazuzu, he crafted a collection of songs that cross the genre divides between Black, Progressive and Extreme Metal, merging ferocious blast beats with shoegaze, doom, noise and a refreshing punkness with the live performance witnessed by 2000 fans at the Terminal stage. The Swiss Metal act finds him joined by Luc Hess (Coilguns, Louis Jucker, Closet Disco Queen) on drums, the falsely retired Renaud Meichtry (Kruger) on vocals, the young prodigy Léa Martinez (Svarts, Etienne Machine) on Moog and vocals, Naser Ardelean (Yrre) on guitar and the noisy Anna Sauter (Yrre, Dubuk) on samples with the album titled “The Seven Crowns” now fit for human consumption…

The pummelling percussion in furious Black Metal style is a restless and relentless artillery shelling accompaniment to guitars which cut the genre with DJent for a blistering opening cut in “The Seven Sleepers” that knows no borders or boundaries. The surprise is how rich the melodic vocals as styles clash in a storm like onslaught of noise that is nothing short of an assault on the senses, the anticipated vicious unclean accompaniment that you’d expect from something like this never materialising. Frantic and frenetic “Faith, Hope, Love” then races away like Trounce have swallowed Anaal Nathrakh whole and they’re threatening to burst through stomach lining. The down tuned guitars offer a collection of riffs that you might expect from the Post-Metal World but you have to get your head around the bombardment of the percussion before you can truly enjoy them for what they are. Dark and foreboding, the skull crushing “Stones” has an almost schizophrenic vocal performance at its black beating heart, the spoken word adding an ethereal quality to the destructive patterns which leave nothing but dust and ash in their wake. There is no respite from the high octane nature of this violently turbulent display however there is a surprising amount of groove and swagger in “Codex” that ensures that Trounce are a force to be reckoned with. It’s one of few cuts that don’t take a moments to get used to when it batters the skull and actually has a sing-a-long chorus partially buried between the powerful staccato riffs.

Keeping all that incendiary energy intact, the oddly titled “The Goose And The Swan” continues the head trip down Alice’s rabbit hole into a dark and deceptive nightmarish World with a full throttle performance that leaves scorch marks on the cerebral cortex. Meichtry offers some bloodcurdling screams which contrast some glorious clean sung parts that sound epic before a majestic slow solo brings down the bloodstained curtain in the black parade. The kit performance feels inhuman and the haunting nature of some of the samples is lost in its whirlwind but crucially there is a balance in this eclectic mix that keeps you gripping the pillow tight during this white knuckle hell ride. There are moments on cuts like “The Crippled Saint” where you can hear a “Dark Side Of The Moon” era Pink Floyd influence underneath the weight of the sound, a deep rooted melancholia ensuring that this one is particularly captivating. Full of fire and brimstone “Silene” is a juggernaut of a piece that offers no escape from the gravitational pull of the black hole, the crushing guitars giving everything the feel of a Buster Odeholm record with a dense chug that judders as the bones rattle once more. Ironically the haunting opening riff might make you think of Slipknot but the pile driving nature of this fast and loose performance is so much more than that. It feels chaotic and raw without being so, capturing a live energy like lightening in a bottle and Meichtry demonstrating an incredible vocal range with moments that sound like pure Jello Biafra wrapped into this one.

Having already covered a lot of ground, the final third of the album ushers forth new nightmarish horrors with the bloodbath that is “Death Of The Good Men” tearing down the blue skies at breakneck pace. It’s actually hard to tell if some of the leads are guitar work or programming because they have an 8-bit like quality but during this violent delight that doesn’t really matter because its so fast, it’s over before it begun and it sounds great either way. The tempo slows with “The Circus“, a cut with more of a sinister edge and that takes a leaf from the Avatar book in its avant-garde nature. Not having that restless and relentless quality to it perhaps gives it more commercial appeal but it is still as powerful and hungry as the rest of this madness. “Walls” follows suit with big down tuned chugs separated by Post-Hardcore tinged Black Metal riffs that have some real intricacy to them. Building throughout to a crushing finale, this one could easily have been set aside for the final cut with it’s bleak nature. Trounce have other ideas however and pull out of the magicians hat an absolute ripper in “The Wheel“, a cut that actually feels like it could have opened the record, let alone conclude it. A monster that carries the weight of the world upon its shoulders, there are dark and twisted riffs that give it a haunting touch before the distortion begins, giving it a real slap across the face. Another which races away with a powerhouse kit performance from Axel Vuill (Luc Hess played on the live version), it’s evil in it’s purist form. One of those albums that has a wealth of nuance underneath the *ahem* wall of noise, it becomes part of the gift that keeps giving over repeated listens [8/10]

Track Listing

1. The Seven Sleepers
2. Faith, Hope, Love
3. Stones
4. Codex
5. The Goose And The Swan
6. The Crippled Saint
7. Silene
8. Death Of The Good Men
9. The Circus
10. Walls
11. The Wheel

“The Seven Crowns” by Trounce is out 20th October 2023 via Hummus Records with physical editions available here.