Arrows of Love's second record shows flashes of gothic brilliance

Understandably, the year of Trump and Brexit has left the band intensifying those themes touched upon in their debut. If everything was fucked in back then, you can definitely take a stab at where their heads are in 2017.

Feeling a duty to use their music as a megaphone, follow up full-length Product continues the stark politically driven themes heard around their emergence. Yet the sound has evolved into something altogether more devious, something that could be caught rubbing shoulders with early Horrors. It’s gritty, dead-eyed and essentially pretty damn relevant.

The scene is set with lingering instrumental “Theme Tune to a Japanese B-Movie Horror” before “Signal” kicks in with angular and jabbing guitars which continue to poke away throughout whole record. Vocalist Nima Teranchi is brilliant at bringing a sense of havoc to the album. His delivery is suitably deadpan and skulks harshly alongside the guitars. The message is direct and easy to grasp as he sings, “So it’s another day waking up to the bullshit grind” on “Predictable”. These lyrics could risk coming over as slightly obvious but there’s no denying that it works with the sound here.

At its worst, it’s a well-executed guitar album. But at its best it’s a gothic slice of brilliance. Given that their debut was born with little experience and a downloaded guide of a ‘Teach Yourself How to Mix’ guide, Arrows of Love can be remarkably proud of how far they've come with this record. Yet like many art rock bands who have been and gone before them, there’s a feeling that they’ll have to pull the formula into some new directions with the next release to keep them fresh.