With the release of their self-titled full-length debut, the Welsh quintet Chain of Flowers have quickly established a growing national and international reputation for a dense, noisy and punishing shoegazer-like sound that’s been compared favorably to The Smiths, Joy Division, Eagulls, Iceage, Ceremony and The Cure — and as a result, the band has received extensive airplay on BBC Radio 6 and KEXP and have toured across the UK with The Fall, The Chameleons, Ceremony, JOVM mainstays A Place to Bury Strangers, Nothing, Eagulls and others. Building upon 2016’s massive buzz, the members of the band will be releasing a 7″ through Blackest Ever Black Records sometime this month and next month, will be in Austin, TX playing a number of SXSW showcases celebrating and promoting both British and Welsh artists. In the meantime, “Crisis,” off their self-titled debut is a murky and pummeling shoegazer track in which thunderous and propulsive drumming is paired with towering layers of shimmering and swirling guitars fed through delay and reverb pedal and submerged, distorted vocals. Indeed, much like The Jesus and Mary Chain, the aforementioned A Place to Bury Strangers, Slowdive and even Grave Babies, the Welsh band’s sound is muscular yet enveloping, murky yet stunningly beautiful — and evokes a contemporary anxiousness and powerlessness.
