Habitar La Mar Feature Aggressive Swagger On Gripping New Noise Rock LP

Called Comedia Yoica, the new album from Spain’s noise rockers in Habitar La Mar lands powerfully. The songs feel like the soundtrack to beating one’s chest in exasperation. The lumbering but decidedly energetic, fierce melodies keep the mixture moving forward, but it’s a contorted beast — sometimes leaping ahead and sometimes careening backwards in a struggle just to stay afloat. But — and this is again building off the energy in this album — there’s not so much a sense of frustration as there is a resigned and even thrilling resignation to keep trodding ahead, no matter how grim or foreboding.

The raw but persistent energy packs a sense of psychologically cleansing metaphorical fire. With a core of fierce upending rock melody, the guitars and drums and vocals all jump around all over the place through louder moments, quieter spells, and beyond, like the instruments themselves have been infected with the rock swagger in the mostly startlingly aggressive yet spoken word-cadence vocals. Quickly, the album proves both catchy and fierce, and the upending tension accumulates at moments like the persistent builds of “Fantasmas.”

The substantively-toned but angular guitar melodies that feel like they’re tiredly slinging themselves against the drum cacophonies at varying speeds throughout the album make Comedia Yoica feel plenty off-kilter all on their own, but a guest spot from U.S. noise rock singer Donna Diane helps dial in just how far the band are going here (and helps perfectly bring to life what the group communicate in the music across the rest of the album). She menacingly sings, quite simply: “I pray for your death,” and the sting from the music thereby leaves an even more psychologically resonant crater, as the meaty but accessible guitar and drum melodies slowly build.

The album’s chaotic but always energetic musical cadence does allow for some moments of musical triumph to appear; they’re just thoroughly enveloped in the wildly careening journey of the album as a whole. Listening to Comedia Yoica feels a bit like struggling to maintain control of a vehicle on some sprawling country road. The fist-pumping moments appear right alongside the devolutions into out of control maelstroms — and it’s a quite striking combo, really. The music comes to life, like the musically expressed desperate lunges for something great that’s beyond the corner are ready made to become the listener’s own.

5/5 Stars

Check out the music below! Comedia Yoica is out via a whole array of labels — click through to the band’s Bandcamp page to check ’em out.