On their debut album, Las Vegas duo The Pretty Wild introduce themselves both as theatrical plate-spinners of sound – and a band you absolutely have to watch.
The Pretty Wild have taken a piece of Halloween into a time of year that’s progressively looking like Christmas. The Las Vegas sisters dance the line between icy dystopia and dark fantasy on this debut, spinning their personal agonies into something otherworldly yet with depth. It gives their own brand of shapeshifting heaviness a touch of theatricality, but in no way do they do style over substance either. In fact, when they want, they can sound all the right kinds of monstrous.
The savagery leaps out first. ‘Tear off my skin, rip it off,’ is a suitably brutal line to open with on first track Paradox, whose hulking riffs and growled raps are sweetened by its big chorus. The title-track channels a cold, digital energy with flourishes of violin for an eerie feel, while Living Ded is a stomping floor-filler made for dancing the dread away. Later, the bludgeoning Priestess strips it all back and hits straight for the jugular with the sort of chainsaw riffs that may have you thinking they’ve been studying Spiritbox’s playbook cover-to-cover. (They’re learning well.)
Even then, as strong as these tracks are, the best is still yet to come. The Trial is a majestic centrepiece revolving around the revenge of – as the title suggests – a witch put on trial, cutting between elegant melodies and lacerating screams. It’s followed by h ALF a LIVE, an almost nu-gaze inflected ballad that gracefully launches into a beautiful chorus while still retaining its grit. There’s a lot that they juggle, yet without over-stretching themselves or sounding scattered.
Even for a debut, The Pretty Wild know exactly who they are, delicately weaving their personality through their ideas to level them up into something that sounds fresh rather than contrived. Don’t underestimate these girls – and if you’re at Download next year, you might want to make space in your itinerary for them.
Verdict: 4/5
For fans of: Spiritbox, Motionless In White, Poppy
zero.point.genesis is out now via Sumerian.
