Kowloon Walled City's Container Ships shares similarities with the kind of "post-metal" that has often led to critical crossover success, mainly recalling early Isis, but when they're at their best, the Bay Area unit don't engage in the indulgences of the bigger names in that field. Most of the songs on their 35-minute sophomore album are lean and compact: Like Canadian noise-rock contemporaries KEN Mode, KWC seem to realize muscular riffs and a little low-end can go a long way. Their straight-ahead character gives the shorter songs a sense of urgency and nervousness, resisting the temptation to meander. Standouts "50s Dad" and "Wrong Side of History", for instance, both show the band can crunch well. ("Dad"'s skronky leads also give it a Deftones-via-AmRep feel.) The more mid-tempo, at times doomy "Beef Cattle" flips the script, emphasizing clean sections amid Scott Evans' drill-sergeant shouts. “Cornerstone” slacks the pace and allows everything to breathe a little, but not with the sacrifice of tension.
These are all interesting variations on a basic template on an album that could've used more of those sorts of shifts. There's a fine line between an established atmosphere and the common complaint that "all the songs sound the same." For Kowloon Walled City, this problem shows up in Ships' two longer songs, the 7-minute title track and 9-minute closer "You Don't Have Cancer". The latter feels like a dragged out version of any given short song on the record-- there's nothing new, or at least fresh enough, to keep the atmosphere convincing. "Cancer", on the other hand, has moments of potential. At the 5:33 mark, for instance, a buildup collapses into a torrent of guitar and dual voices, but it doesn't surge with enough bombast to make it noteworthy. There's potential there, especially with the combatting high-low vocals, a tool that could have been even more of an onslaught then the guitars. In general, Container Ships is heavy, but often doesn't feel heavy enough. As these two longer songs highlight, they don't always make the most effective use of space, which for any band-- no matter how sprawling or how compact-- is crucial.
It's a bit frustrating. Kowloon Walled City are a band with the right stuff, and all the ingredients for a compelling album are present on Container Ships. It's just that they don't make everything come together in the most interesting ways. KWC have shown here and in the past that they've got the tools to be an above-average metal band; next time they need to make a piece of architecture we can all dance around, because considering the elevating demand for shriveling supplies of attention, "ok" is almost worse than "unlistenable."
