Black Dresses - Forever in Your Heart
Feb 15, 2021 (updated Sep 11, 2021)
70
The phrase “No rose is without a thorn” rings true for fewer artists more than Black Dresses; and typical for Black Dresses fashion, emotionally distressed lyrics and awkwardly lovable vocals meet explosive, visceral, and ear-splitting noise on what is possibly their most well-rounded release yet.

Regularly branded in the same wheelhouse as artists in the vein of 100 gecs and Dorian Electra, Black Dresses have made a name for themself as misfits in the music industry. As you follow along with the Black Dresses input, you may notice a slow incline in quality. The band went from seemingly aimless stochastic arrangements of loud instrumentation to a coherent and blissfully arduous fusion of indie-rock and noise. This incline eventually led to the release of their experimental opus, Peaceful As Hell. This album found a delicate balance between a blown-out, horrifically harsh on the ears presentation and tender lyricism, lyrically equating to that of a warm hug. Forever In Your Heart continues the band’s upward trend, leading them into the previously uncharted territory of industrial metal territory.

Before I get into Forever In Your Heart’s music, I’d like to put the Black Dresses on a spectrum. Peaceful As Hell is at one end, being the most exuberant and hopeful release in their catalog, and Forever In Your Heart is at the other, being their most forlorn and morbid. Every other album falls somewhere between those two albums, predominantly leaning towards Forever In Your Heart’s lyrically tense and agitated direction. However, all are kept on the same equilibrium thanks to their volatile and fortissimo sound.

Going back to the aforementioned idea that Forever In Your Heart is on the end opposite to gleefulness, it presents itself as a collection of the most emotionally-open and traumatic music the band has laid its name to so far. The anxious and impromptu vocal performances add to the lyrical impact, which may have been dampened if the band didn’t present their vocals in such a sentimental way. The psychologically poignant lyrics are likely a result of the band’s breakup, which they are currently returning from. To delve into the band’s backstory a bit, for any reader who doesn’t know, they recent;y disbanded after gaining TikTok popularity, citing the overwhelming attention they received from their spike in popularity and what they felt was disrespect to the song’s initially sensitive and confrontational lyricism as reasons for the death of Black Dresses. Indeed, quite a disheartening tale, one that so obviously had a heavy influence on the music itself.

Any hopefulness that one could find in Peaceful As Hell has been replaced with dreariness, creating the most uncomfortably confrontational release in their catalog. Add on to that the musical pallete, having one inkblot of industrial music, one of indie-pop, and one of metal all splatted onto the canvas tastefully. You get an unsettlingly tormented album thanks in part to the band’s spine-chillingly passionate passages of shrieking and the spontaneous, off-kilter breaks between industrial-metal portions that walk down a lowkey and nocturnal indie-pop inspired lane, taking heavy influence from albums such as Poppy’s I Disagree. The metal-tinged elements also compliment the glitchy and blaring electro-industrial sound that has marked every Black Dresses album up to this point remarkably well. It is not only the band’s most diverse in influence but also their most touching and harrowing piece of music to date. This album throws hundreds of both sonic and lyrical bricks at you, smacking you until your ears bleed out of pain and then confronting you with their deepest, darkest thoughts. Seeing how quality this project is, it’s sad to see the band proclaims the Black Dresses moniker will remain discontinued and only chose to drop this album as a moment of much-needed finality. Though, if the curtains are finally closed for Black Dresses, then this is one hell of a way to close them.

-----------๐˜‹๐˜Œ๐˜Š๐˜Œ๐˜•๐˜› ๐˜Œ๐˜๐˜Ž๐˜๐˜› ๐˜–๐˜œ๐˜›๐˜›๐˜ˆ ๐˜›๐˜Œ๐˜•------------

FAVORITE TRACKS: PEACESIGN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, Concrete Bubble, Bulldozer, Heaven, Silver Bells, Ragequitted, Waiting42moro, We’ll Figure It Out, Understanding, Perfect Teeth, Zero Ultra, (Can’t) Keep It Together
WORST TRACK: Tiny Ball

7 Comments
3y
I LOVE THIS REVIEW AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Thank you so much for getting me into them <3
3y
Good review! Suddenly I'm highly interested~
3y
@thiefofprose As you should be! This is a pretty great, albeit loud, project that you'll either absolutely love or completely hate.
3y
I missed their hyped-up LP from last year too- gonna check out both this week!
3y
Huge W
@thiefofprose def check out last years it was catchy af
3y
@rafae_l Thanks!
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