Genre-fusionism becomes a hypersonic missile in the latest drop from Chaidura, Plastic Beauty, an Avant-Garde glitchy metalcore riot incited against society’s surreal obsession with synthetic superficiality, which now masquerades as beauty. The London-based artist has been building a world where visual kei drama, emo candour, alt-rock weight and raw emotional exposure all converge, and in the artist’s LIMINAL chapter, that vision feels darker, heavier and more grounded in the psychic damage of comparison, control and self-reckoning.
Following a Pendulum-esque intro, mechanical metalcore intensity consumes you, and the arrangement, as it keeps throwing subversive symphonic pop and industrial aesthetics into the mix, keeping it off the keel to hold you inside the explosive yet seamlessly natural progressions. Beneath the sonic violence, the lyrics cut with blunt force, taking aim at beauty standards, self-rejection, and the kind of shame that festers when appearance gets treated as currency.
As undoubtedly one of the most talented bands in the UK alt underground, Chaidura delivers head-spinning panoramic production quality, almost beyond conceivable instrumental talent, vocal magnetism that pulls you into the core of the emotion, and, polishing it off, a savant-level imagination to envision such a hit. While too many artists are painting by numbers to stitch together reincarnations of tried and tested formulas, Chaidura is building chaotic cathedrals of noise that rain society’s rubble down on you when you step inside. It’s fucking phenomenal.
The London-based artist has already drawn attention across tastemaker platforms, and this latest release pushes further into the harsher emotional terrain of their LIMINAL era, where self-acceptance, image, and psychic fracture all scrape against each other.
Plastic Beauty is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.
Follow Chaidura on Instagram.
Review by Amelia Vandergast
