Heartbreak is a disease. It brings out the worst in people and exposes the most tender of wounds and rubs salt in them for pleasure, conjuring ghosts of the past that control decisions as they please. It brings emotions that can rot you from the inside out if they are not exorcised properly. It’s a condition that needs to be dealt with and the level of intensity and honesty that comes with the expelling of such feeling can be felt in abundance on the debut effort from Greaver. This is ‘The Faun’.
Like the bastard child of Pianos Become The Teeth at their most broken and Envy at their most punishing, ‘The Faun’ packs a huge punch right in the temple and revels in the pain. Telling a story of deception, heartache and burning hatred, the band claw at their own self-conscious with reckless abandon and deliver a record that grips the throat and chills the blood. The devilish ‘Southfield’ and simmering ‘Earth Rune’ show off the band at their rawest and most unrestrained while ‘Moonlight, Snow’ quivers like a frost-bitten hand before closer ‘Hang Up’ delivers the final depressing blow to a tale that will linger on your mind long after the final chords have rung out.
Between spoken word context nuggets, harrowing instrumentals and haunting vocal cries, Greaver deliver a real rollercoaster of a debut. Injecting enough humanity to remain grounded and relatable while being deep-set and shocking enough to remain as bleak as possible, they spill every ounce of feeling into ‘The Faun’ and come out the other end victorious. If they are able to create such an engulfing and bitterly cold record at their first attempt, who knows what the coming years could hold.
4/5
’The Faun’ by Greaver is released on 29th April on Cardigan Records.
Greaver links: Facebook|Bandcamp
Words by Jack Rogers (@JackMRog)
