Album review: Twin Atlantic: 'Vivarium'

TWIN ATLANTIC: 'Vivarium' (Red Bull Records)

In case you weren’t aware, a ‘vivarium’ is ‘a place where animals are kept under natural conditions’, which is a rather fitting moniker for Twin Atlantic’s debut. The deception at the heart of the word – perceived freedom amongst captivity – cuts to the heart of the band’s sound; their raw, primal energy often feels like it is kicking against its own boundaries, refusing to be hemmed in or stilted by the conventions of song structure and accessibility.

This restlessness produces some truly masterful work. The record is hugely ambitious and playfully adventurous, mixing piano and cello with Biffy Clyro-esque guitar plucking and cataclysmic thrash to create a tornado of sound that sweeps you up and carries you along in its wake. The stalwarts of success are abandoned: there are stops, starts and rhythm changes everywhere. ‘Old Grey Face’ pauses several times between verse and chorus, before its hook ups an octave and a glorious key change catapults it into the stratosphere.

The album is thematically rich too, concerning itself with an array of interpersonal issues, putting the band in the same bracket as a host of superlative Scottish contemporaries (Sucioperro, The Xcerts, We Were Promised Jetpacks.) ‘Human After All’ is an ode to temptation, containing a fantastically chaotic final thirty seconds in which the song orgasms all over your speakers. ‘You’re Turning into John Wayne’ explores personal identity, observing the transformation of an individual’s nationality. And then there are more escapist moments, such as the absurd ‘Where Is Light? What Is Laughter?’ and the charming ‘Lightspeed’, which has the confident swagger and punch of a thousand Biffy tracks, stomping out of the starting block with insurmountable ferocity before morphing into the most grandiose chorus this side of a Muse album.

So much fun is had listening to ‘Vivarium’ – its tracks trawl so many corners of the psyche and stir up so many emotions – that when it winds to a close with the blissful ‘Better Weather’, you really don’t want it to end. At a meagre eight tracks, it doesn’t seem long enough; but then, that’s probably the point. The band capture the exquisite essence of their music by giving as succinct a statement as possible, thereby whetting our appetites perfectly. Simultaneously delicate, gargantuan, moving and absurd, ‘Vivarium’ is a gorgeously rich record, a near flawless snapshot of a band destined for greatness. Treasure this hidden gem while you still can. (9/10)