SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: PISS – YOU MADE ME / SKIN ON LINEN

PISS
YOU MADE ME / SKIN ON LINEN
PAPER BAG RECORDS

Emerging from Vancouver, BC, PISS has quickly amassed a fervent following and an air of excitement off the release of only a handful of singles over the last month. Signed to Toronto’s Paper Bag Records, the band is set to release their debut, full-length album, You Made Me / Skin On Linen, a visceral album that explores the realities and consequences of systemic and intimate violence through a visceral sound that blurs the lines between poetry, performance art, and hardcore music.

PISS opens their debut album with “kai and friends,” a track that establishes the sense of innocence through the voices of children discussing their aspiration. This is immediately shattered by the abruptly thrashing waves of distortion of “i wanted to be a singer.” The song introduces the listener musically and thematically as PISS disrupt soft and melancholic melodies with escalating, screaming vocals, and ripping guitars. To call “i wanted to be a singer” a hardcore song seemingly falls short of what PISS is doing. The song feels closer to performance art with singer Taylor Zantingh sounding as though she is both leading the band while also narrating outside of the context of the music. It is a very unique delivery that sets up the album as a series of vignettes that ensures the thematic and lyrical content remains at the forefront of the album.

SPILL MAGAZINE ILLUSTRATION: PISS

The album continues to push and pull, teetering between hardcore and performance art as thematic interludes set the scenes in between songs. What remains consistent is an incredibly raw sense of emotional volatility throughout the band’s performance. There is a reckless abandon that sounds almost liberating, almost akin to that of Nirvana, as the band shifts between soft and harder dynamics on songs like “time loop at hot slit” and “blocking a scene you can’t remember.” More abrasive songs, such as “there was a door” and “how can you act opposite to this emotion,” further stand as highlights among the record.

You Made Me / Skin On Linen is an uncomfortable listening experience. This is both intentional and where PISS finds power in their artistry. Musically and lyrically, the band pulls no punches as they openly discuss the social, cultural, and psychological consequences of sexual assault and the realities women face in a society that refuses to prosecute rapists to the highest standards of the law. The result is a brutal album that feels extremely vulnerable as PISS presents their record through a series of progressive sonic tableaux that is equally powerful and heartbreaking. I applaud PISS for making and being entirely committed to such a relevant message through an entirely raw performance style, evermore so when you consider that this is their debut artistic statement. This is powerfully defiant to the systemic and pervasive rape culture that sees institutions and political agencies try to reframe the actions of, say, Matthew Ingalls, Johnathan Newell, Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris, and Scott Kretzschmar, while shifting blame onto the actions of the victim. On You Made Me / Skin On Linen, PISS challenges you to question yourself the next time you, consciously or subconsciously, doubt the validity of a survivor’s story, spurring further inquiry against the systems that exist to perpetuate these ideologies of misogyny.

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