For most people, there’s something undeniably captivating when you’re listening to a song in another language. Whispers of another way of life, with another cultural perspective and inherent history can’t help but creep in and benevolently embellish the music. It also helps when the music kicks ass.
The Brazilian Millo, featuring Gabrielle Augusto and Matheus SEAF is the latest to whisk us away in such a manner. On their own, the pair make an already formidable force, but they bring a lot of friends along the way, including Joseph Arrington of A Lot Like Birds and Sianvar fame, so you know it’s going to be a pretty groovy ride.
Check out this video for “Miragem,” which came out earlier this year. Nós, the band’s new album, has been a long time coming, and the single quickly demonstrates the level of care and subtlety that Millo applies to their hybrid strain of emo, post-hardcore, and math rock.
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“Ratio, Pt. 3” and “Vislumbra,” show off some of the band’s most original material to date with their molten post-hardcore and lively, percolating lead lines. When “Vislumbra” veers violently into its heavy bridge, the drastic scenery change actually paints a complete picture, and it’s a really nice change of pace when it comes to bands that take from post-hardcore. To us, it seems there are a lot of bands with similar genre tags that are all too happy to mimic their sonic forefathers, but Millo’s tunes come directly from the gut without referencing their influences too directly.
The ambient, emotive interlude of “Ovazioentre” shows off a totally different dynamic strength for the band as well. The tracks sizzles like bacon fat with its consistently hushed yet harsh dynamic, and it not only shatters the language barrier, but underscores the fascination we mentioned in the intro. As the song swells into the title track, Arrington’s snare-to-kick mix as as impeccable as ever. Even when he’s throwing in tiny cymbal nods to drum greats like Steve Gadd and Vinnie Colaiuta, he still manages to perfectly compliment the emotional vocals and soaring, spacious guitar parts.
Overall, Nós comes as a beautiful reminder that there’s a lot left to explore in the marriages of post-hardcore, progressive rock, and math rock. With such excellent execution, here’s hoping that the album is just the beginning. We’ll keep you posted.
Maybe this will be the inspiration we need to start learning Portuguese! It’s a really pretty language. Check out the rest of the album on the Millo Spotify here, and throw us an iced coffee here, because soon, it will be too cold to order one. Well, out here in the southwest corner of nowhere, anyway. It’s getting to cross over from Fall into Winter soon enough. Anyway, we’ve got a spooky one for you tomorrow, so get ready for some scary good tunes, and thanks for reading!