Unsane is responsible for a good chunk of noise rock excellence in the past three decades, albums like Visqueen ushering in a new era of the band’s caustic sound, challenging Scattered, Smothered & Covered as their magnum opus. For the Milan-based Baratro, this means that Curran’s absolutely mammoth basslines are front-and-center in The Sweet Smell of Unrest, while his frantic Mike IX Williams-esque shrieks elevate the sound to vicious heights – or depths. Alongside his attack, guitarist Federico Bonuccelli of hardcore punk attackers Council of Rats and drummer Luca Antonozzi of post-punk saturators Marnero offer their own formidable performances, stinging melodies and sharp snare cutting through the density. In an interesting culmination, Baratro takes influence from the causticity of noise rock, the intensity of hardcore, and the meandering of post-punk, even though The Sweet Smell of Unrest is more than the sum of its parts. It’s undeniably a noise rock and sludge fusion – and a good one at that.
Baratro offers the groove first and foremost – while the blend of its influences sounds complicated, this element ensures The Sweet Smell of Unrest’s sweet simplicity complements its attack. Curran’s bass guides the proceedings with overwhelming overdrive and distortion, feeling full and dense while also colliding with driving jaggedness. “Fight the Parking Meter,” “Don’t Look at Me, I’m Hideous,” and “Grotesque” offer punishing grooves with the bass saturating and bleeding into the other instruments. Even more contemplative tracks like “Pope of Dope,” “Nervous Wreck,” or closer “Glutton” – with Bonuccelli’s reverb-laden guitar taking the spotlight with unsettling and eerie melody – the bass provides an incredibly solid foundation that feels unceasingly molten beneath more subdued material. Mathy rhythms a la Great Falls hit with unhinged mania in tracks like “Adherence” and “Simp,” while hardcore tempos hammer “It’s All Your Fault Timmy,” both palettes injecting a jolt of needed looseness that balances neatly with moments of straightforward groove. The mix, and sound at large, are immediately gratifying, the low-end comprising a solid foundation while sharper percussion and scathing guitar add variation.
Like any album whose sludgy riffage is the main attraction, there are simply tracks that lose impact by association, and The Sweet Smell of Unrest is arranged into a two-half affair. Baratro manages a slamming groove for the first half of the album predominantly, while subtler crawling tracks saturate the second. Each half descends into a tinge of monotony, as tracks like “Pay Dirt” and “Don’t Look at Me, I’m Hideous” fall short with one riff dominating albeit short runtimes, while “Pope of Dope” falls short of “Nervous Wreck” and “Simp” can’t live up to “Glutton.” The issue is that the album is arranged as such, with one tempo or energy determining the sound. Similarly, while the groove of “The Bad, The Bad and the Ugly” is killer heavy, the effectively creepy spoken word portions are never revisited across the album, while the effective mathier riffs of “Adherence” simply carry on for too long.
Ultimately, Curran’s influence is the most powerful across the board, and for the better. When Baratro relies on dense bass and crushing groove, even in more contemplative styles, The Sweet Smell of Unrest lives up to that sweet, unnerving title. It’s a bit disappointing that the album is so lopsided in terms of songwriting, groovier attacks pervading the front and crawling aesthetics dominating the back, but each is accomplished with much gusto. While its debut is imperfect, the absolute mammoth that Baratro represents will move mountains with its next steps. Maybe not here, but a new era of sludge and noise rock awaits.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: WAV
Label: Improved Sequence Records
Websites: baratro.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/nelBaratro
Releases Worldwide: February 2nd, 2024
