Review: SeeYouSpaceCowboy - Fashion Statements of the Socially Aware (2017)

Damn. Shit's crazy, why y'all sleeping on this?

This peculiar EP ought to be some of my absolute favourite finds lately, no doubt since after all I'm quite susceptible to extreme music at times. Released last year, the fairly ridiculously titled "Fashion Statements of the Socially Aware" is quite easily unbridled chaos. For a band name that's most likely a reference to one of the most critically acclaimed anime Cowboy Bebop, I would expect some crazed jazz blared out at any given moment, but instead what we have here is punishing, headache-inducing, ear-aching, discordant and sassy mathcore.

Sure it's nothing new by all means, but to say Fashion Statements and the band as a whole aren't visceral is quite a foolish act. As far as I concerned they don't want to reinvent anything, but I can tell their work or this EP in particular is quite exceptional in some ways, which is fine by me especially it's worth considering this was merely found in Bandcamp where finding an outstanding obscure metal release is the equivalent of finding a needle in the haystack in the first place.

The aptly and amusingly named opener "An Introduction for People Who Hate Introductions" pretty much sets the mood on how things going to turn out. Sassy riffs and weirdly danceable drumming that's capable of swinging your ass to the groove to bring in the hype initially welcomes us into the fray, before the tension was released furiously and it doesn't stop that much throughout 'till the end. The band shines like it was nothing. Swirling discordant riffs neatly placed crushing breakdowns and maniacal vox filled every inch of it, which in the end they were able to make Fashion Statements a very enjoyable listen and ultimately a notable release of 2017, to me that is. 

The thing with Fashion Statements is SeeYouSpaceCowboy played in a very experienced way and doesn't sound amateurish in the slightest anymore, which is admiring and impressive since the band displayed an astonishing difference in terms of quality between their skramz-flavoured demo (which was apparently their first output) and Fashion Statements. The band doesn't mess around with samples and whatnot like some would do as Fashion Statements is extremely short, and I'll be dammed if I say seven minutes of short bursts throughout is fully satisfactory. That's probably my only disdain with it, but the other aspects are essentially an ace for me.

Given the fact that this band appeared out of nowhere around two years ago I'm actually interested on how they'll expand their sound in the future, and if I'm being honest with myself I'm quite excited when I found out they are currently working on an full-length album, so it's obvious I'm keeping an eye out for any news from these Californian aural freaks. They are a class act and deserved applause, but for the time being we just have to wait and see if they are the next big thing. If not, well at least Fashion Statements is here to stay.

Get on it fam.

Author's note: According to Metal Amino this review was originally posted on January 10th 2018. During that time the band wasn't as big as it is right now, so to see they're blowing up is tight.