[Hand Drawn Dracula; 2024]
Dermabrasion are the beads of sweat flying in a mosh pit; Oily black residue crammed into the cracks of a sad punk space. slathering on eye shadow at 3am after arriving home in the rain. The Toronto-based duo of Adam Bernhardt and Kat McGouran revel in this wistful and volatile energy. They’re the kind of band that has the fortitude to light an ember in a full-on trash fire. If they took the stage at your local venue, you might not know them beforehand, but you’d remember them well afterwards.
It’s McGouran who is the not-so-secret weapon on the duo’s debut album Pain behavior. Over the top and amidst a backdrop of muddy guitars and drum machines, at her best she is a compelling and almost seductive presence. Over the galloping beat of “Grim Sister” she unravels her lyrical structure, repeatedly shouting “the skeletons in her closet want to dance” as if it were a continuous sentence. On the heady two-minute punch of “Proving Ground” he shouts “twist, twist, twist” like a dance command as opposed to an instruction. Even when he whispers at the beginning of “Magic Missile,” he commands your attention, teasing you to lean in a little closer.
Addresses fans of early pop. 1280 and Zola Jesus (and the general aesthetic of Sacred Bones), Dermabrasion deals in craggy and brooding tones, goth rock/post-punk guitars and bass that sound like they’re coming from the earth as opposed to a speaker. Although it is not always the real dirt under your fingernails, but definitely still things dirty hands. “Psychic Event” wraps itself in frothy fuzz, the guitars in “Goblin Dance” peel away as if they’re breaking free, while the aforementioned “Grim Sister” sinks into jet black darkness after its chorus. Style matches substance. Skin scraping doesn’t sound like they wear suits to match Semilunar 2021’s EP was tinier and less powerful (production by Josh Korody and mastering by Noah Mintz this time around is remarkable in how they make the band sound 10 times louder and more impressive), but they still channeled the same desert punk and industrial -Influenced area where people like LaVeyan Satanism, shame, power and problems of a physical form are at the heart of their concerns.
It’s the right fuel for a powerful statement and stamp on your mind, and Pain behavior it definitely makes a good effort to get your attention. Opener “Halberdier” has a tumultuous theatrical outfit about it, and the way McGouran sings the title track sounds like she’s summoning an ancient demon. With a riff riding on the coattails of the Undertones’ ‘Teenage Kicks’, ‘Betrayer Moon’ straddles the line between occult ritual and religious ceremony. “The morning star shines its fiery light on me,” McGouran says as if enjoying the moonlight.
Despite the good start, however, something is missing. The soundscapes aren’t often interesting enough to keep going through them repeatedly. They want more electricity and more idiosyncratic features to distinguish the tracks from each other, but also the band from other acts traveling the same road. “Magic Missile” is too hard and lacks hooks to make much of an impression (apart from some impassioned screams from McGouran) while “Psychic Event” needs something more interesting than a bridge sung from the bottom of a well. The last track “Blight” comes off as an afterthought of the previous one “In the Time of Queens” and consequently the album ends on a muted note away from its more exciting moments on the other side of the record.
In some ways it’s no wonder an album is liked Pain behavior it loses steam and has a back half that lives in the shadow of the tracks ahead. It’s a tough energy to maintain and it takes something remarkable to pull off, leaving the listener yearning for more. As a first round though, Pain behavior it’s a solid effort that hopefully leads McGouran and Bernhardt toward an even more incendiary sequel. They capture that flame in moments here, creating music that really isn’t made for sitting still, music that demands the friction of bodies on a grimy club floor to let the energy spill out and in between. To create bruises from bumping into others, shoes to be scratched from being stepped on, and beer to be spilled into the carnage of the mosh pit. This is the Dermabrasion the world needs most, the Dermabrasion you’re left wishing they’d capture more of Pain behavior.
