cotoba (코토바) : Since the World is About to End

cotoba presents us with an ode to the end of the world. Many other works of art reflected this same scenario the last time, possibly as a way to sublimate the uncertainty that we are living in during recent years.

As an avid fan of math rock and post rock, one thing in common in most of the releases from 2021 is that the artists took risks and challenged themselves. As skillful as they are emotional, those pieces lacked midtones and from the experimentation originated a dichotomy. While many musicians delivered more violent and chaotic albums the polar opposite gave birth to gentle and mesmerizing creations.

The last one is the case of Since the World is About to End. As if this ode was in a decrescendo, each song delves deeper into the melodrama. The album is richer in textures than its predecessors and each track seems to strengthen the spell that we fell into. At one extreme, we have the song “melon” exploding with intensity and emotion in each chorus, while its counterpart “Lost orb” is a piece that could well encompass the entire concept of the album: a brief but beautiful goodbye.

This is not a math rock album from a textbook. There aren’t that many of the popular resources like the loops or long instrumental sections, instead, the band relies more on the vocals and lyrics, without losing the essence of the genre or overshadowing each other. It seems contradictory to say so, but with this work, they establish themselves even more as one of the landmarks of Korean math rock.

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