UK band JONESTOWN was formed at the end of March 2014, and fairly quickly released an initial EP and a single in the summer and fall of 2014 respectively. Since then they have honed their presence in the live circuit, and prepared more material. “Aokigahara” is their debut album, and is set to be self-released at the end of March 2016, exactly on the date two years after the band’s formation.
As one would expect from a band taking their name after Jim Jones horrific project town in Guyana, they explore a kind of music that is fairly intense and aggressive. Those in the need for uplifting music can safely look elsewhere, as this is a band firmly cemented in the more aggressive parts of the metal spectrum.
Hammering pounding rhythms alternate with machine-gun intensity bass and drum attacks throughout, and the massive guitar presence comes in the shape of dark, powerful riff cascades, minimalist melodic overlays and buzzsaw sharp slicing riff attacks. Powerful and vibrant through and through, with more than a fair amount of aggression present at all times and more often than not a world like brutal is appropriate, even if it doesn’t always truly reveal enough about the intensity of it all. The vocals follows the same trend: Dark, raspy and guttural sounds wrenched from the throat of the singer, in a manner that sounds both violent and painful.
Jonestown balance on the threshold of being too much all out aggressive and trying to combine their aggressive tendencies with technically challenging or structurally sophisticated maneuvers throughout, and doesn’t always manage to get a blend that will appeal beyond what I regard as a niche audience. Not that I imagine the band members are all too occupied with that aspect of their music of course, as I could well imagine this being the kind of crew showing an aggressive disinterest towards anyone suggesting to them to try to make music that might appeal to any specified subset of metal fans.
If you have a tendency to enjoy loud, heavy and intense dark metal that has a strong focus and emphasis on aggression, incorporating a fair few elements from hardcore alongside some subtle but firmly delivered technically challenging escapades into the mix, their brutal variety of what I suspect some would describe as metalcore should come across as generally appealing.
My rating: 70/100
