Kowloon Walled City

In the world of heavy music, few bands embrace dynamics and negative space like Kowloon Walled City. Since forming 15 years ago, the band has increasingly refined its deconstructed approach to noise rock, math rock, and doom, landing them on stages with similar boundary-pushing bands like Neurosis, YOB, Sleep, Sumac, and Thou. With Piecework (Neurot Recordings/Gilead Media), the band’s fourth album and first since 2016's Grievances, Kowloon Walled City reaches new levels of restraint. Songs are bleak and slow, but concise. There are stretches of near silence. While the band has always operated under the MO that less is more, it has doubled down on that ethos for Piecework. Singer/guitarist Scott Evans and guitarist Jon Howell, the main songwriters, self-imposed restrictions to push themselves creatively—“restraining ourselves into oblivion,” as Howell put it. But the negative space amplifies the ruptures of heady aggressiveness that anchor Piecework. Angular guitar notes from Howell skew off the neck, dissolving into space. Ian Miller’s bass lines churn in the muck. Drums and cymbal smashing by Dan Sneddon punctuate dead air. (Sneddon, formerly of Early Graves, makes his recording debut with the band five years after joining.) There’s sadness and anger in Evans’ shouted vocals, but also a desire for something better. As with all previous KWC releases, Evans recorded and mixed Piecework. (His recording credits include Yautja, Thrice, Great Falls, Ghoul, and Town Portal.)