Geometers

Brooklyn, New York

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Though most go through great pains to avoid it, discord is essential to the human experience. It is only by challenging our assumptions and that of those around us that we broaden our perspectives and evolve as individuals. The only question is whether we are brave enough to confront discord or if we’re too comfortable, too complacent—too afraid.

 

Since their inception, Brooklyn, NY’s Geometers has confronted the friction in their lives through complex and menacing songs. Their latest EP New Disorders is no exception, though, this time, they pair their personal lyrics with more enormous, resonant melodies.

 

“Heat Death” sticks in the listener like a thorn, its sharp, curved chords and amped-up energy aggravated by singer Kyle Pollard’s hoarse scream. And “Boot Straps,” though slower, is no less tense; with Sam Wadsworth swapping his bass for a baritone guitar, the song’s weight comes from complex chords and simple rhythms. It’s easy to hear the frustration in these tracks and on “No Face,” a plodding, pummeling track whose dissonance lingers, making its resolution satisfying and maddening; here, Pollard sings about conceding your identity to those around you out of fear of judgement and failure.

 

Amid this discord, New Disorders is also an album born out of unity. Following the release of their debut Pay to Live, Pollard and Wadsworth tapped Tommy Hallett to play drums. His influence, extending beyond mere rhythm, can be heard on “Hungry Ghosts,” where Hallett’s drums lock with Wadworth’s clanking bass and collide against Pollard’s manic chords, creating a momentum that stops and starts abruptly, kicking and collapsing and clamoring back to its feet. It’s chaotic and discordant and triumphant somehow all at once.

 

New Disorders reveals Geometers’s lighter spirit and heavier identity, but only because the band was willing to take risks, explore new directions, and challenge each other as songwriters. It also reveals a band brave enough to not only confront the discord in their lives, but embrace it.

 

Kyle Pollard - Guitars and Vocals

Sam Wadsworth - Bass, Baritone Guitar, and Vocals

Tommy Hallett - Drums