Album review: Genghis Tron – Signal Fire

Sometimes, you just have to take a break to find yourself again. That’s what Brooklyn/San Francisco-based Genghis Tron did over a decade ago. In 2010, after six or so years together, the then-trio went on hiatus for what ended up being a decade-long break.

When they returned in 2020, they were without original vocalist Mookie Singerman, who presumably realised there was (a lot) more money being on the management team of artists like Olivia Rodrigo and Caroline Polachek than there is making relatively obscure noise rock/electronic grindcore. And fair enough.

Thankfully, the other remaining members decided to resume making noise, adding vocalist Tony Wolski and drummer Nick Yacyshyn to the equation. That meant that 2021’s third LP Dream Weapon was the first time the band had ever had a drummer on the band, and together with Tony’s powerful screams, it both continued and elevated the band’s sound.

Five years on, they’ve returned with fourth album Signal Fire, and have also added a new bassist – Nick Yacyshyn of SUMAC and The Armed – to the fold. The results, to be frank, are quite extraordinary. Genghis Tron were never a band that were easily defined, and that continues to be the case with these 10 songs.

At the same time, these are some of the most accessible and immediate tracks they’ve ever committed to tape. Take, for instance, Future Worship, a jittery, paranoid track that has echoes of Depeche Mode within its folds simultaneously being carried by the band’s more metal tendencies.

It’s one of the quieter songs on the record, but that’s the exception rather the rule. Intense opener I Am All shares that new wave DNA, but infuses it with some visceral screams that transcend the genre. Both the shapeshifting, seven-minute Tomorrow Mirage and the dark and moody Nothing Blooms In The Hollow begin with a harrowing post-hardcore screams before they branch off in a thousand different directions. There former, for a brief moment, even sounds akin to Underworld’s iconic Born Slippy.

Born Prey is more straightforward metalcore. At first, anyway, before it morphs into a completely different song. The same thing happens A Love So Pure, writhing and wriggling between genres, never settling or staying still for long. Rather, it sounds like a snake eating – and then vomiting up – itself until there’s nothing left but nothing.

After that comes album finale New Gods. Essentially an amalgamation of all the sounds and styles on the album, it begins by sounding like it could be the soundtrack to the film that shares the second half of this band’s name – all atmospheric synth and pulsating rhythms – but then descends into a cacophonic crescendo of primal noise.

It’s a record, like the three before it, that defies both expectation and categorisation. It’s also, at times, an uncomfortable listen, but it leaves a mark on you that’s incredibly hard to shake.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: HEALTH, Nine Inch Nails, The Armed

Signal Fire is released on June 12 via Relapse