Frameworks Loom

Split between shrieking intensity and highly-charged melodic urges, Frameworks are in many ways operating outside of your typical Topshelf act. The Gainesville, Florida quintet are stringent emocore enthusiasts, a quality they share with the much-revered Boston label, though it’s in how they’re stretching into other stylistic realms whilst keeping that trait in check that they instantly stand out even with a cursory listen. Screeching, impenetrable vocals are surely a polarizing presence, but it’s also the key ingredient that fuels their incendiary aggression - it decrees every peak and trough throughout its 27 minute runtime with a heightened sense of intuition, a visceral form of emotional distress that is so obscure it gives the listener too much and too little at once. Sure, it’s the prototypical anguished cry that has given emo its fair share of ridicule and mockery, but it’s matched with a buoyancy that belies the album’s ominous nature.

Loom is thrust with great force right from the outset, though not in the way you’d assume from a band whose first two EP’s were performed with a rigorous adherence to disorderly metalcore. The title track expectedly shoots at breakneck speed, true to form, though its serpentine guitar parts and irregular drum patterns make out the appearance of some sort of mutant tropical/punk hybrid. Frameworks prove to be dexterous shape shifters, rhythm and movement given emphasis at each and every corner, which is why more standard cuts like Mutual Collision and Bright and New benefit when treated with intricately complex transitions. Through all the heady murk, the compositions are occasionally lighted up with bursts of beauty, though - taking a cue from Trail of Dead’s vibrant noisescapes, album standout Splinters is charged with a frenetic urgency that soars with thrilling tonal dynamics.

The penetrating noise that envelops Loom is greatly attributed to producer Jack Shirley, who manages to replicate the controlled chaos of his band Deafheaven. Much like their breakout album Sunbather, there’s a noticeable correlation in how the album unfolds in constant variation though in reduced, more compact mini-suites. But Frameworks are keenly attuned to their post-hardcore stance, concerned with writing fraught, yet muscular bouts of fury instead of gazing down into shimmering depths. Which is why the more indelible moments, like the slow-burning catharsis of Familiar Haze, get their point across more succinctly and with the same amount of dramatic tension. Loom becomes tiresome as it reaches its second half, and the lack of lyrical clarity, though sincere in execution, balances poorly against the powerful instrumentation. It still holds some major knock-out moments that prove their mighty arrangements can make for a highly compulsive listen. Until that times comes, their gust-busting anthems prove they’re an album or two away from delivering their true essential listen.