Pupil Slicer Blossom

When Pupil Slicer roundhouse kicked their way onto streaming services and turntables in 2021 with their debut LP, Mirrors, it was a sign of things to come. The trio was remarkably competent dealing a grinding, gnashing form of math metal, as unrelenting as it was fierce, even if it felt a bit one-note. They cut their teeth with a couple splits and EPs before that, but Mirrors was the proving ground. Their new album Blossom though? An unexpected treading of more complex ground and refining into a more surgical being.

If you listened to the first single, the title track, when it dropped, you’d be forgiven for wondering, “woah, what the hell happened?” to yourself. It was poppier and more upbeat than anything on Mirrors. It is an outlier on Blossom, but it fits in nicely with the cinematic rhythm the album has. Kudos to Pupil Slicer for taking a risk in releasing that as the album’s first single, and apologies to those of you who maybe wanted more of that on here because there is almost none of it to be found.

That doesn’t mean that Blossom lacks an air of pragmatism and progressivism because it does have that. It’s quite endearing to see the pace of the LP unfold before your ears. “Glaring Dark of Night” sets the tone with ambiance and screeches at the end to open the door for “Momentary Actuality”, a blackened, mean opening salvo of drums and vocals, arcane and multifaceted guitars not far behind. A clean vocal hook purges the track of darkness temporarily, but it’s clear by the song’s midway point that power and precision are still Pupil Slicer’s modus operandi.

And that’s great because those are the things that attracted so many people to them at first, myself included! Blossom is touted as “a hard science fiction/cosmic horror concept album with central themes of abject despair, reincarnation and a fascination of hell” and the tone very much fits those themes. Industrial elements, crunchy guitars, menacing vocals, and enough entropy to keep things well in motion as the music sonically invites you into different realms to close a loop of violence and pain.

“Creating the Devil in Our Image” has a moody welcome mat of an intro, only for it to clobber you in the chest with mathy riffs and splashy drums when the full suite of instrumentation arrives like a derailed freight train. “No Temple” mixes things up a bit as well with a breakbeat intro that acts as a prelude to the massively melodic, punishingly proggy meat of the track with a metalcore-ish backbone - the breakdown at the end ain’t half bad even if it’s not quite my thing.

After so much heaviness and traversal of despair, it makes the last three tracks a well-earned sonic reprieve and ending to a harrowing story. “Language of the Stars” feels revelatory with its eerie piano and hushed voices hanging in the background. “Dim Morning Light” acknowledges a light at the end of the proverbial, clichéd tunnel and basks in it with ethereal vocals and shimmering guitars walking lockstep with raspy howls and synthesizers that mark the closing of a portal after escape. And finally, “Blossom” earns its place in the tracklist as a triumphant cry from the precipice of all the doubt and hurt overcome in earlier songs - it makes the lyrics, “really not so bad now is it? We'll make it through this” hit hardest. It’s catchy and cool, yes, but still feels at war with the rest of the album because of its pop punk-esque stylings.

If you heard Ithaca’s outstanding album They Fear Us last year, Blossom carries a similar momentum and energy with it. It’s not as tight and the payoff isn’t quite as great, but it tries its own thing to pretty good effect. Pupil Slicer avoid a sophomore slump by not playing on the same field they were with their first LP - this is evolved to a degree, maybe a more accurate representation of the band’s three members, their influences, and their intentions with their art. If Mirrors was pissed off and rabid, and it was, then Blossom shows more nuanced distillations of that anger through its story and seeks to move forward from it.

Bottom line: Pupil Slicer deserve a lot of credit for taking some big risks that worked well for them. The hardened core is still there and likely always will be, but the skin surrounding it has softened with more refinement, subtlety, and maturity to direct those tough-to-navigate emotions the band deals with. Blossom is uplifting and more fun than television, that’s for sure.