Oh! How splendid! Hello traveler, I see you’ve found my shop. Would you like to peruse my wares? I may have something that may aid you on your journey. I’m in a bit of a bind here so I can’t quite hand it to you. It’s flipped up into my waistband, there you’ve got it. Oh how nice, It’s the debut single from the Orange County California based band Apparitional.
This single is set to drop August 23rd, So by the time this gets published it probably will have been out for a little while. Let’s get some Biographical stuff out of the way first. Apparitional is the side project of Rik Turner (of The Returners) and Rikk R Treat (of The Writhers). I peeped both bands and they’re pretty cool, I’ll let you explore on your own because I want to focus on this release by itself. Rik Turner handles the guitar, bass and vocal work on the single, while Rikk R Treat tackles percussion. Lets see how well this translates!
Unhallowed | Apparitional (bandcamp.com)
I want to start off by saying I REALLY wish this this had a B-Side to it. For a debut single it’s always good to have more than one sample of what you have to offer. That being said, Unhallowed is a pretty solid track. Composition-wise, it flows very nice. You’re not being thrown off by anything which really works here. If they wanted to stray off the path with a nice knuckleball they could’ve. Instead you’re mostly given 2-seam fastballs down the middle, BUT there is a curveball with the dissonant hardcore style breakdown riffs halfway through the song. Baseball!
As for the mix, It’s not bad at all. The guitars are nice and fat. Personally I have a thing for a rugged clicky deep bass, and in a down tempo song like this it really shines through and glues it all together. Instrumentally, these two guys are really talented. I wish Rik’s vocals popped out in the mix a little more, because holy shit this dude can sing. It’s damn smooth too. There’s an arpeggiated guitar voicing in the track that doesn’t necessarily need to be there, but I’m really glad it is. While it does make the space a little claustrophobic it does add just a touch more melody here. The drum work is on point. Nothing is over the top or show-offy, It’s nice and in the pocket and does exactly what the track calls for so no complaints there.
I have only two points of constructive criticism. This should’ve had a B-side to accompany it. “Unhallowed” is a good song, and like most good songs it took me a few listens to really appreciate it. Once that was all absorbed in my brain my next thought was “alright, what else can they do together?”. So for now we’ll just have to wait. Minor gripe #2, and I could be completely wrong on this one so go easy on me. The artwork. Even though both Rik(k)s are relatively established, this is still a debut release for a new project. I feel like you’d want to attract as much attention as possible and a great way to do that is by having eye catching artwork. By itself, the imagery is pretty good, I know what I’m going to be listening to once I hit play. The issue is, well let’s do a little experiment. Go to bandcamp right now and go to new releases in any of the industrial/dark wave adjacent categories. This artwork kind of blends in. It doesn’t pop out against the raging sea of other releases that feature a lady in the woods set in monochrome which may deter new listeners. Not to say the artwork is bad by any means. It just blends in a bit. I don’t want that to take away from the musicality of these two guys because “Unhallowed” definitely stands its ground, and I do look forward to hearing more from the two Rik(k)s.