Article By: Pat ‘Riot’ Whitaker ‡ Edited By: Leanne Ridgeway
From Portugal with sludge, and vibes of metal, post-hardcore, and unbridled punk intensity, comes PLEDGE and their recently issued ‘Resilience‘ EP.
With four tracks, and a total playing time a bit under seventeen minutes in length, PLEDGE is purposeful and on point. There is no time to waste, so things are dealt with swiftly and savagely, right out of the gate as “Profer Lumen Caecis” erupts. Churning guitar riffs rise and crash while massive rhythms, and their crunchy drum counterparts, pivot in place.
One of the most immediate things you will notice is singer Sofia M.L.‘s throat-wrenched style of screamed lyrics. Abrasively discharged, there are brief moments of clearer, somewhat spoken wordplay she engages in, yet they are fleeting. All the while, her bandmates – Hugo Martins (guitar), Vítor Vaz (bass), and Filipe Romariz (drums) – provide her the aural platform from which to rage.
Which she continues to do in “The Great Inbetweeness,” as the trio of players generate, then navigate some tightly knit grooves. Yet, it is the next track, “Doom And Redemption“, where things escalate into a full-on pummeling of sludgy, tech-y metal.
Then comes the final cut, “The Peter, The Wolf“, with its whirling buzz of thick riffs and rapidly rendered music. There are brief pauses at points, ones where things taper down before exploding into segments similar to beefy breakdowns. Check out PLEDGE‘s official video for the track below.
Before we go, you can catch PLEDGE live at this year’s Distortion Fest #3 [Info], along with IT WAS THE ELF, GREENGO, MR. MOJO, and REPRESSÃO CAÓTICA. Set to take place on Saturday, December 29th, at Cco barcelos in Braga, Portugal.
