Year: 2021
Total Time: 32:27
Label: Metal Blade
Louisiana. A state so unique with the huge multicultural and multilingual heritage that comes from French, Spanish, African and Native culture. Everything there, is so special! From New Orleans, this crucible of cultures, beliefs and superstitions, the iconic Mardi Gras till the famous swamps of Baton Rouge and Huma. There are also some great bands in this area. Everyone knows EYEHATEGOD, CROWBAR, ACID BATH, DOWN, not to forget to mention EXHORDER and GOATWHORE as well. There is also CAPRA, a newly established band from Lafayette, formed by the guitarist Taylor Harper and the drummer Jeremy Randazzo, trying to stand beside all the aforementioned bands.
After quite of plenty member changes, the bassist Ben Paramore and the vocalist Crow Lotus remained steady. Especially Crow Lotus is a dynamic persona, called to shoulder the band’s weight and presentation to the outer world. CARPA perform mostly metallic Hardcore without permeating to punk genre quite sludgy, with many references to other local bands, looking at recent bands such as ALLOCHIRIA and OATHBREAKER. Crow Lotus is trying to express her anger and concerns, performing acrobats between them, but truth is that she really has to put more effort to reach the level of Irini and Caro of course. Lyrics seem interesting, focusing on neglected people coming from her experiences as a child of immigrants.
These lyrics have to do with night phobia, personal family relationships and conflicts, terrorism and daily women matters (don’t forget, we’re talking about Louisiana, a conservative and republican state) but these matters appear to the rest of the world as well. The way she is expressing these lyrics, her dynamic, her effort to colorize and dramatize every step, is remarkable but the record production is unfair, putting her voice a bit over the other instruments, so the interesting yet unpredictable Harper’s guitar riffs are lost at the listener’s ear. The duration of “In Transmission” is the proper one, not lengthy and not fatigue as the songs are brief, thrifty, substantial and full of energy.
“In Transmission” is a very promising debut in the “metallic” Hardcore scene, a genre that gave us nice records this year such as the one by the Koreans SLANT. CAPRA stand solid on the late 90s metal scene, presenting their own new vision supported by a great label. It’s up to them to make good use of it and stay on this level for a long time.
Rating: 7/10
Editor: Dimos Karadimos
Related Link: CAPRA – Facebook Page
