Tired of the algorithm? Artio transform that digital fatigue into ammunition for their best songs yet on their second album, Soul Rot.
Artio are sick of the algorithms pulling their strings like puppets. The strain of expending their creativity on 30-second reels and mining for viral gold might be rotting them from the inside, but now, it’s cannon fodder for their most explosive music yet. Their second album captures them in a whirl of fury, frustration and passion. Just listen to the relish with which vocalist Rae Brazill sings ‘Wise up / Ooh, and get fucked!’ on the scathing, Cody Frost-featuring opener The Devil You Know.
It's the first in a long line of some of the Leeds quartet’s best songs to date. Although their potential was still writ large across 2024 debut Babyface, it’s here that they’ve sized up into the most exciting version of themselves, all big hooks, big personality and gut-twisting riffs. Bite Down, in which Rae drinks in the euphoria of post-top surgery existence, writhes with an enigmatic, futuristic energy, while Full On Fight For Fun enlists As It Is for a festival-ready slice of electro-tinged emo. Later, If Only They Had More Chance To Take Flight dares to be feral and absolutely succeeds, particularly with the hair-raising vocals of Love Rarely’s CJ, and Let It Be A Void’s hypnotic duel of riffs and chunky percussion is positively virulent.
The album’s perhaps a little overlong – Incision Site and Vertebrae don’t do quite as much heavy lifting as some of its stronger tracks – but there’s plenty of space for every facet of Artio to come into the light. They do intimacy and emotion just as well as bangers, as with the curling melodies of Algae Bloom and the soul-stirring closer Room Tone, concluding the record with the beautiful declaration, ‘I’m all I’ve ever known / There’s nothing wrong with me.’ Equally affecting is O Negative, a devastatingly fraught violin-strewn ballad capturing Rae’s feeling of fragility after receiving a barrage of transphobic abuse online, where they sound almost tearful as they sing.
As second album glow-ups go, Artio’s is a powerful one. After this, they surely will never have to beg to be heard again, not when these songs hook you back in again and again and again.
Verdict: 4/5
For fans of: VUKOVI, Boston Manor, Hot Milk
Soul Rot is out now via LAB.
