Dark, sexy, grown-up – not adjectives you would previously have associated with Massachusetts trio PVRIS, who were until recently poised to clamber their way to the position of electropop-punk heroes. After 2014’s debut album ‘White Noise’ and its killer singles ‘Fire’ and ‘St Patrick’ rose up the charts, PVRIS could have followed the tried and tested route to fame by dialling back the heavy and upping the pop. Hey, it’s worked for Paramore (they’re still epic) and even Avenged Sevenfold (they’re just as heavy, less screamy).
What PVRIS have somehow managed to do is keep everything they put into the first record, but add a darkness that’s taken their game to a whole new level. Although ‘All We Know Of Heaven, All We Need Of Hell’ is not heavy in the traditional sense, it’s still weighty and cloying. Opener ‘Heaven’ roars and rumbles along to an awe-inspiring close and the foot-stomping synthpop of ‘What’s Wrong’ will surely be an instant hit.
‘Separate’ is darker than anything they’ve done before, with singer Lyndsey Gunnulfsen slithering along it in all the right ways. It’s the kind of track you want to hear at a festival as the sun dips, when you know s**t is about to go down. By the time ‘No Mercy’ arrives, there’s no escaping how catchy this record is.
