Scaler - Endlessly
Bristol’s Scaler (formerly Scalping) made their name by fusing metal instrumentation with the dark mechanics of club culture.
When they first emerged as a live act pre-lockdown, the gigs were pulverising in their intensity and the pandemic came at perhaps the wrong time for them.
Their 2022 debut Void was born in isolation, stitched together remotely, and while it showed off their ferocious energy, it sometimes leaned too heavily on blunt force, almost as if the sheer frustration of the endless days of nothingness were put to music while suffocating any nuance of life.
But on Endlessly (the band’s first release under their new name), they take a more organic and collaborative approach, recording side-by-side in the basement of Bristol’s iconic Louisiana.
The result is a more cohesive and atmospheric album, though not one without limitations.