siLLy puPPy As the 21st century churns along, once independent musical genres and subgenres are constantly being redesigned and placed together like a never-ending jigsaw puzzle so what is one to make of the combo pack punch of screamo, post-metal, blackgaze and emoviolence? Well the Rockford, Illinois based band FRAIL BODY decided to find out on its latest release ARTIFICIAL BOUQUET after expanding beyond the strictly screamo / emoviolence debut “A Brief Memoriam” which appeared in 2019.

This power trio of Lowell Shaffer (guitars, vocals, piano), Nic Kuczynski (bass) and Nicholas Clemenson (drums) has been cranking out the noise rock since 2017 but in 2024 has crossed over into the realms of metal madness with a much more ferocious attack courtesy of black metal textures and incessant rampaging tempos although the delivery system is still rooted in the screamo world which is now a newer offspring of the hardcore punk realms.

While superficially sounding something akin to Deafhaven, Life or Sadness who also utilize the screamo / blackgaze combo effect, FRAIL BODY is much more of a loose wire. After a short EP length debut (but still “officially” an album), ARTIFICIAL BOUQUET delivers 11 high-octane tracks launched by the totally explosive opener “Scaffolding” which sounds like the most unhinged second wave black metal band of the early 1990s had suddenly adopted the aesthetics of Orchid, Gospel or Portraits of Past with a rather post-rock type of song construction.

Screamo is an acquired taste and not one that i have totally grown fond of as the vocal style doesn’t really resonate with me even though extreme vocals are definitely up my alley. It just ends up sounding a bit goofy to my ears and likewise blackgaze can be a bit too tinny and sort of emulates a hi-fi interpretation of lo-fi black metal from the likes of Darkthrone. Interesting experiments for sure but these bands tend to use post-rock and post-metal to implement their song structures and often result in a sameness that just doesn’t offer an album’s worth of varying stylistic approaches. A one trick pony if you will.

FRAIL BODY embodies these exact same qualities although in the case of ARTIFICIAL BOUQUET the redeeming factor is that the tempos and dynamics are a bit more diverse than the average screamo or blackgaze band. The downside for me though is that the vocals are stuck on the same screamo / emo mode with only a few moments of non-screamed softer vocal contributions. Musically some of the tracks feature some interesting riffing and the murky distortion is rather interesting especially with the math rock type of nerdy changes in rhythm and tempo.

The emoviolence nature of the discordant guitar grunge and blastbeats do offer some nice energetic performances though even though the erratic high pitched vocals are set to scream your bloody lungs out! Although i don’t outright hate screamo, blackgaze or emoviolence styles, i can say that i’m usually underwhelmed by the monotony of how these genres are presented and the fact that FRAIL BODY has melded these styles together in a new manner hasn’t really alleviated these complaints. In the end ARTIFICIAL BOUQUET is a decent listening experience and this style certainly has its loyal following but i keep expecting more advanced compositions that offer more variations in themes, styles and / or timbres and it never really occurs. High energy performances here make it worth a spin though. Not my fave but decent.