Browsing Tag

12 Below

Open It Up: 12 Below wants to rapidly break through from the darkness on ‘Cage’

With a grippingly moody start that has you thinking you might be in the new Blade movie, 12 Below finds the weak point and busts through in an overwhelmingly effective manner to be free again on ‘Cage‘.

12 Below is a South Florida-based indie alt-rock band who forge through fiercely into our curious minds, with a darkly soaked mesh of dark progressive soundscapes to ponder deeply inside our raging souls.

Heavy drums and bass, distorted guitar riffs and haunting keyboard soundscapes set the stage for the evocative and often socially or politically oriented themes of vocalist To’Be.” ~ 12 Below

There is a horror-movie type flow here as everything is so gloomy and a bit scary at times, the vocals are pitched in a way that might give you the shakes as this is a world no one wants to be in. Each second pierces at your skin like having a tattoo from someone who wants to inflict pain on you – as there is so much to sink your blood-stained teeth into – the whole way through this at-times terrifying experience.

Cage‘ from the swamp-filled reaches of South Florida alt-rock act 12 Below, is all about being trapped for so long in a world with no light appearing at all. The heart-shaking ambience is one of shivering mystery and sung with a dark tone to have your whole body in sweats – as this is a track to play when you are feeling at your lowest – and need to find the courage to lift your soul from the sewage you have fallen headfirst into, so you may reach up to safe landings again.

Hear this fine new single on Spotify and see more via the IG music channel.

Reviewed by Llewelyn Screen

12 Below – Jetsam: Austere art-rock

South Florida’s most avant-garde art-rock artist 12 Below is back with his sophomore single, Jetsam, which pulls together as a dark and discordant mash of industrial, darkwave synth-pop and post-punk.

With an intro that shares reminiscence to Manchester post-punk outfit The Chameleons before the soundscape switches into a phantasmal feat of electro-rock that any fans of Dir En Grey or Celldweller will be familiar with, you’ll be hooked from the first haunted note to the last.

The ethereally ambient soundscape was constructed with effect-loaded guitars and glassy keys in downtempo progressions, for the visceral kick, 12 Below loaded caustic drums and a heavy serving of bass. I can’t tell you how refreshing it is to hear an artist similar to NIN, who also makes the dark electro sound their own.

Jetsam is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast