Elizabeth Colour Wheel - Nocebo
Boston’s Elizabeth Colour Wheel just dropped a new song, called “Pink Palm.” The song is from the band’s debut full-length album Nocebo, dropping March 15.
Elizabeth Colour Wheel
The lineup of Elizabeth Colour Wheel comprises Lane Shi (vocals), Emmett Palaima (guitar), Alice Jackson (guitar), Bill Cunningham (bass), and Connor Devito (drums). Their sound blends Goth, sludge, noise rock, shoepunk, and even hints of doom and slowcore. And it’s allowed them to share the stage with Cloakroom, True Widow, Planning For Burial, and Have A Nice Life.
Nocebo is the opposite of placebo, wherein the influence of suggestion causes negative side effects. It’s like when you Google the side effects of Effexor, which you just started taking, online and read through the adverse effects, which may include and affect appetite and sleep patterns, along with psychomotor problems, disinterest, decreased sex drive, fatigue, and even suicidal thoughts. After absorbing this worrisome information, all of a sudden you begin experiencing them. The drug isn’t causing them. It’s the pernicious power of suggestion that’s affecting you.
The solo section features dirty, wailing guitars forming a wall of sound, as Shi’s tormented tones soar overhead, as if entering the Gates of Tarturus.
“Pink Palm” opens slowly, riding an almost lazy guitar, followed by Shi’s beguiling voice, low and meandering. Then the harmonics ramp up, oozing dark tension and opaque energy. Searing feedback acts as a type of bridge leading into blazing, driving momentum. There’s a raw edginess to the music, a mixture of raucous noise rock and proto-punk. The solo section features dirty, wailing guitars forming a wall of sound, as Shi’s tormented tones soar overhead, as if entering the Gates of Tarturus.
The after effects grind and scream and moan, resembling the cries of the inhabitants of an asylum. It’s powerful music, with beau coup sonic pressure, heaving textures, and Shi’s deliciously inimitable banshee tones.
“Pink Palm” projects variables piled upon variables, traveling from timidity to brazen cacophony. Elizabeth Colour Wheel delivers a grand soundscape replete with flavors of Neronian insanity.
