About.com Rating

The Bottom Line

Bizarre and unique rock unlike anything you’ve ever heard.

Pros

• Blazes a trail, rather than following a trend.
• Makes discordance listenable.
• Possesses an indie, underground appeal.

Cons

• Difficult to listen to for long periods of time.
• Vocals are an acquired taste.
• Defies any pigeonholing; this is only for a very specific audience.

Description

• Released March 9, 2010 on Hydra Head Records.
• This is Daughters’ third LP.

• Daughters hail from Rhode Island.

Guide Review - Daughters - 'Daughters'

This should prove to be quite the difficult listen indeed for both modern metalheads and closed-minded music fans alike, for Rhode Island’s Daughters are anything but easy listening, folks. Nay, the quartet’s self-titled LP, their latest and third proper, may be just the anti-venom needed to kick start the underground’s blood flow towards true originality via lethal injection.

This is because Daughters almost singlehandedly annihilate any preconceived notions about musical structure or genre clichés with their all-encompassing strangeness. The band’s early grindcore roots have now been completely deconstructed, and replaced with vast and forward-thinking soundscapes which are at once both lushly arranged and gratingly discordant.

Repeated listens reward the listener with an unfurling sense of musical reward, however, though Daughters is unerringly, undeniably gnarly, there is this growing sense of understanding which is worth the wait and effort, ultimately.

Though frontman Alexis Marshall’s drunken, sadomasochistic amalgamate of Nick Cave and Elvis Presley should take a bit of getting used to for most, the songs of Daughters rely on them to drive their collective point home, anchored all the while by the pounding ‘n driving rhythms of skinsman Jon Syverson.

So while the music of Daughters may come across like unbearable and unlistenable noise for some, the other side of that coin reveals the bravery and defiance necessary to release a record as unflinchingly “uncool” as this self-titled effort. Personally, I can’t stop listening to it.

Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.