Clipping.: There Existed an Addiction to Blood – Clipping. have created a genuinely thrilling, and shy, boundary pushing album here using very few tools and a lot of intelligent design.

I’ll be honest, when it comes to dividing a genre down into its many sliced sub-genres and facets – I get confused by all the new pronouns that kids are using these days.

Horrorcore is one such singer I wouldn’t be able to explain, but I very much understood it as a listening when I pressed play on this album. Dripping with a sense of eerie cinematic soundtrack quality, musically comparable to a John Carpenter score – threadbare and repetitive and basking in a simplicity that has much more weight and importance than you can imagine – this is music that uses the space it creates as a beautiful canvas for vocals to shine.

With an impeccable flow and a voice that veers close to Andre 3000 – Clipping. have created a genuinely thrilling, and shy, boundary pushing album here using very few tools and a lot of intelligent design. Opening tracks, “I Tro” and “Nothing Is Safe” blend into one giant slap in the face that taunt and tease and haunt and chase you. A single repeated piano line provides the spine for what is a genuinely tense, intimidating opener that sets a high bar for the rest of the album to stalk and eviscerate. Something it does with convincing aplomb.

With reggae influences, horror influences, and an understated, incredibly catchy theatrical quality is a stunning, pivotal album that could well be a calling card that more bands to come will be citing as an inspiration for many years to come. Thrilling stuff and rewards you with every repeated listen.

Words: Andi Chamberlain – There Existed an Addiction to Blood is out now on Sub Pop.

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