#8: ¡Forward, Russia! - Life Processes (2008)

1. Welcome To The Moment (The Rest Of Your Life)
2. We Are Grey Matter
3. A Prospector Can Dream
4. Spring Is A Condition
5. Don't Reinvent What You Don't Understand
6. Some Buildings
7. Breaking Standing
8. Gravity & Heat
9. Fosbury In Discontent
10. A Shadow Is A Shadow Is A Shadow
11. Spanish Triangles

Yes, two recent albums in a row again, but in fairness they both came out last Monday so by covering them now I'm keeping this blog cool and relevant. Or something like that. Anyhow, ¡Forward, Russia!: I loved the first album, so I was greatly looking forward (haha) to the follow-up. Those of you expecting Give Me A Wall mk.2, however, might want to cast aside those preconceptions...

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It's been almost two years since ¡Forward, Russia! unleashed their debut album on the world, and their follow-up, Life Processes, proves to be a quite different beast, but just as accomplished nonetheless.

The album begins on (almost) familiar territory: 'Welcome To The Moment (The Rest Of Your Life)' sounds more like Give Me A Wall than anything else you'll hear on this album, but even during its frantic two minutes you can feel it straining, striving for something more epic. Follow-up 'We Are Grey Matter' starts out in an uncharacteristically restrained manner, with an echoy "Call! Response!" refrain and a minimal synth line, before a disco drumbeat kicks in. It's only after a minute or so that those characteristic guitars return, along with a shout of "Let me make this fucking clear! I've got a landmine attached to my leg!" which ironically doesn't make things clear at all.

Indeed, Tom Woodhead's lyrics are still as enigmatic and cryptic as ever, but intriguingly this time they seem to be shot through with references to the bible. For example, on 'A Prospector Can Dream' he asks: "Did you ever study the Israelites? They made a new life for themselves with such a peculiar change." Not your average Friday night conversation down the pub then, but yet within all the oddball metaphors there are some lyrics that stick out as meaningful: "We could be something in a new location!" could be a rallying cry for people stuck in dead-end towns everywhere.

It's evident that the band were full of ideas when recording this album, and it shows with their ability to cram multiple ideas into the space of a single song. 'Spring Is A Condition' combines brooding intensity with a purposeful, earnest chorus and some electrifying guitar work before throwing in some video game synth noises in for good measure, while 'Don't Reinvent What You Don't Understand' mixes jerky math-rock riffs with shimmering guitars to great effect.

'Breaking Standing' seems like the album's most accessible, almost poppy moment, with guitars that sparkle and shine - even in the heavier parts of the song they feel a little restrained, allowing Tom's vocal to take centre stage with memorable hooks such as "When it weighs too much, think of it as seven times the weight." It made sense as a first single, and it sits well in between the weightiness of 'Some Buildings' and 'Gravity & Heat'. The former is an epic slow-burner that once again breaks out the biblical references ("Ashes to ashes! Dust to dust! Jesus Christ and Lazerus!"), while the latter spends six minutes lurching brilliantly between heavy metal riffing and swathes of reverb-laden guitar. The heavy metal guitars also feature on 'A Shadow Is A Shadow Is A Shadow', which must surely be considered a pioneer as far as songs that contain the phrase "pitchfork-wielding mess" are concerned.

However, if you thought the rest of the album was a departure for the band, then 'Fosbury In Discontent' will provide even more of a shock: Consisting of little more than a piano and Tom's plaintive vocal, it's an unexpectedly tender moment amongst the intensity of the rest of the record. The album's ambition truly comes to fruition with another great departure, closing track 'Spanish Triangles': A nine-minute epic that builds steadily from an understated drumbeat and sparse, echoing guitar to a towering, majestic soundscape for Tom's yearning vocals to soar above. The lyrics achingly remind us that "We all have our moments!" - and this is certainly one of ¡Forward, Russia!'s best yet.

So, while the tracklisting of Life Processes warns against reinventing what you don't understand, there should be no such worries when it comes to this album. ¡Forward, Russia! have managed to create a record that's very different from Give It A Wall without losing sight of what made them such a great band in the first place: Their relentless intensity and Tom's crazed vocal theatrics are still very much in place here. Rest assured, the band still understand how to make not just one great song, but an album full of them.