Girl at the Rock Shows

I’ll be honest, the writer’s block has been real for me lately. Although my stack of albums to review keeps growing, I just haven’t been able to sit down and really focus on it. I need to change that, and although I fear that I am still falling victim to the dreaded writer’s block, I refuse to give in and will force myself to sit here until I complete a couple of album reviews. Thankfully for me, my first pick of the night, ‘My Body, You’ll Alter’ from Variant, snapped me back into the swing of things in such a powerful way.

This six-song debut EP begins with a very ominous track, “Born to Live.” This song starts things off by setting a very eerie backdrop for the album, but as the vocals come in and take over, it’s as if things lighten up, if only ever so slightly. The vocals feel oddly bright when I think back to how this song opened, but I love it. As this two-and-a-half-minute song progresses, it builds in tension, power, and beauty before reaching its peak about a minute and a half in. I was instantly consumed by Variant as this song hit its peak. It’s nothing short of epic and brings in so many intricacies and elements that somehow come all together to create a crisp and staggering moment of sheer power before the song falls back into a more subdued slumber. “Born to Live” absolutely caught my attention and, as mentioned, instantly snapped me out of the writer’s block I had been dealing with. I just could not wait to check out the other five songs on this release.

“Nice to Meet You” begins with what sounds like play being pushed on an old-school cassette tape. Although it lasts only a split second, I began to think about what this could mean for the song. Was it going to lean retro? The short answer is yes, but this song is so much more than just a retro track. The instrumentation that takes over after the click of the cassette tape feels like it’s straight out of a video game from the ’80s, but on cocaine (in a good way). The sheer speed with which the opening lick hits you is insane, but again, Variant’s way of soothing things over with the gorgeous vocals that are a signature of this group comes in and takes over, blasting this song into the ether. The instrumental side of this song instantly reminded me of We Butter The Bread With Butter (yes, that’s a real band that definitely deserves your attention if you’re unfamiliar), but the vocals keep this song sounding and feeling like Variant and Variant only.

“Purgatory” seems to revive the slight creepiness introduced in “Born to Live.” The beginning of this track is simple with the words “Wait a minute” circling around, but it’s the tone in which they are doing it. The words are whispered, and they seem to be floating around your head at the beginning of this song, creating this all-consuming kind of feeling. Again, as the song progresses, the gorgeous and more standard vocals of this band smooth things over, while the instrumentation adds a sense of tension in the background. I know this is going to be a bold opinion, but if you were to remove the instrumentation here, you would be left with a gorgeous, pop-style sound. If you took away the vocals, you’d be left with a wall of insane and intense metal-styled instrumentation. The way Variant blends these two elements so seamlessly into each of their songs is something I will never fully understand, but I will always appreciate and envy.

“Cause of My Death” is the longest track on this six-song EP. It lasts just over five minutes, but Variant makes sure to use every single moment of this song to tell the epic tale that is “Cause of My Death.” We get to see the more sensitive side of this band here, and it’s nothing short of lovely. This song is somber, a bit slow-moving, and definitely felt like a much-needed moment to come up for air and breathe from the onslaught of power and sound of the first three songs. However, at the same time, this is not a song to skip over. The wall of sound and power of Variant is still here, but it comes in a different form. It almost feels a bit more cinematic, a bit more dramatic, and contains an absolutely undeniable sense of heart and emotion. I found myself completely lost in thought throughout this song. I could feel myself subconsciously sorting through thoughts and feelings that had been plaguing me. It’s something that I should have done a bit ago, as things have been building up inside of me, but there was something about this song that gave me a feeling of comfort that I needed to get this daunting task done. Beauty and power, “Cause of My Death” is more than just a song on this album; it’s a statement piece.

Just when I was really starting to get lost in my own head, Variant pulled me back with “Prism.” This is another heavy-hitting song with insane speed and power at the forefront. This song almost felt jarring with the sheer speed of it and how it followed the beautiful and calming nature of “Cause of My Death,” but I liked that. It’s as if Variant gave you the time to get lost in your own thoughts, have your little moment, but then reminds you that life goes on and you just have to keep trucking.

Closing out ‘My Body, You’ll Alter’ is “Judgement Day.” I was expecting something insane, almost sinister, just based on the song title, but, instead, was greeted with an opening to this track that felt a bit more like “Cause of My Death” than anything else. That being said, there was a subtle build happening behind the tender opening. I was expecting it to come to a head about a minute in, but it didn’t happen. Instead, the band calms back down for another swell of emotion and sound before they really hit you with it after about two minutes. Although I would have liked to see a bit more of the metalcore chutzpah felt in some of the previous songs, I liked how this final song not only showcases the insane talent of this band but also their way of showing restraint and control.

Tl;dr – ‘My Body, You’ll Alter’ is an insane showing of how much restraint and control, but also power and talent that Variant has. Some moments got me all kinds of stuck in my feelings, and other moments where I really tempted to open a pit up around my dining room table while pushing and shoving my cats out of the way. Variant is all power, all passion, and absolutely worth your attention. There’s really no other way to say this: ‘My Body, You’ll Alter’ is a truly impressive debut EP.

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