Empty Frame – Underdogs

 

 

Empty Frame – Underdogs
Coma Records – 2024
Rock, Alternative, Post, Prog, Stoner
Rated: *****

I love Greece, been to many of its beautiful islands, but have unfortunately not yet visited Athens. Seeing a live show by the great The Same River alone would be worth the trip. And now there’s an extra enticement. For the five-piece going by the name of Empty Frame is also from the ancient city of Athens, and they have delivered one hell of a new album! Formed in the year of our lord 2005 they are approaching their twentieth anniversary. And with their new record Underdogs, they are releasing their fourth full-sized album. Not counting the two soundtrack albums (Heroines 2015 and Hands 2017) which they also delivered. Underdogs can be viewed as an ode to “all those people who have suffered oppression, discrimination, violence and facing their dead ends, wake up/breathe and rebel.” Underdogs is the first Empty Frame album that does not use piano, but still implores cello and violin, which is what makes Empty Frame so different. Which gives the band their very own sound, the celestial soundscape touch, the grand arc that is always present. The way they use those classic instruments and classical elements to create the heavy music they most definitely do characterizes the band in a way that very few other bands have. Eleven tracks with almost fifty minutes whisks you away on their prog rock adventure. There are more seventies rocking, psych and post rock influences and more nineties alternative touches, but all of those comes second to that cello and violin touch. Even if they are sometimes minute, they are there to lift all of the compositions to a higher plain. And so do the duo male, female vocals, perfectly complimenting each other. And don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a clean cut classic rock album. No, there is riffage here, gritty tones, excellent riffs and wild guitar work. Just take third track High Plains for instance, exceptional guitar puncturing, building and splintering whenever the composition calls for it. Those vocals, both delivering this top down ominous view as well as something that feels like a warm embrace and a refrain that could go further during live shows. The cello and violin get to shine during the middle section, and then when it all comes together, it combusts in a contained way. It sounds like the most seminal Empty Frame track on Underdogs, the one that sets the scene after those already amazing two that came before. Opener Come Undone with its overture sensibility and Ghost Town with a hint of Queens of The Stone Age. Three songs in and it’s three perfect strikes! Empty Frame!

(Written by JK)

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